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...admits while relaxing in an Olympic Village coffee shop before the Mexican flag-raising event. "But it's not all that bad." The skier's grandmother is half-Mexican, and von Hohenlohe, who is a Vienna-based singer and photographer when he's not speeding down the slopes, was born in Mexico City while his father was running a Volkswagen plant there. "We always wanted to have one member of the family [who was] Mexican," he says. "So they chose that I was going to be born in Mexico. That was the idea...
...When he was four, however, the prince left Mexico for Spain. He went to schools in Austria, where he took up skiing. Since he was born in Mexico, von Hohenlohe could still compete for that country; he made his Olympic debut in 1984, finishing 38th in the downhill. This will be his fifth Olympics for Mexico, but only the first since 1994. Although he qualified for the Torino Olympics in 2006, the Mexican Olympic Committee refused to send a one-man team. More eager for exposure this year, Mexico decided to support his next-to-nothing shot at a medal...
...national obsession and the competition is cutthroat. Is von Hohenlohe simply a rich heir toying around the Alps, and using a poor country to reach the Olympics? "In life you have a couple of opportunities and openings," the prince argues. "And one of them was that I was born in Mexico. Sure, I used it to my favor. But not in an abusive way. You try to find that little thing that makes a difference, and take advantage of them. I took advantage...
...Still, Mexicans are unlikely to tear up with pride while watching him race. Perhaps he should follow in the snowshoes of Robel Zeimichael Teklemariam, the 36-year-old cross-country skier from Ethiopia. Teklemariam, who was born in Ethiopia but moved to the U.S. when he was nine, competed for his native country at the Torino Olympics despite the fact he hadn't set foot there in 23 years. Yet after those Olympics, a three-week vacation in Ethiopia turned into permanent residence, and he has no plans to leave. Now he trains in Europe, but in the off-season...
Asked how his son came by his unusual name, Pa Ebele Jonathan once told a reporter that as soon as the boy was born, "I instinctively realized that this child has that element of fortune." Pa Jonathan, a canoe-maker from southern Nigeria, could not shake the thought. "I just said to myself, 'this boy is lucky,'" he said. "So I decided to call him Goodluck." The father's instinct proved true. But his son's good fortune would often come after the misfortune of others. In 1999, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was elected deputy governor of Bayelsa province...