Word: nagvajara
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Dates: during 2002-2002
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...Nagvajara grew up in Bangkok playing keyboards in a teenage rock band; he was 18 before he ever saw snow. By entering the Olympic Games, he has joined an elite club: he is one of 11 athletes who are the sole representatives of their countries at these Salt Lake City Games. From 20-year-old Shiva Keshavan, who carried the hopes of 1.1 billion Indians with him down the icy luge track (he came in a surprising 33rd out of 50), to slalom skier Gian Matteo Giordani, who will represent the tiny European enclave of San Marino today, none...
...love the sport, and the chance to compete at this level is beyond a dream," says Nagvajara, who has never won a race. "I was so honored, and proud, and shy to carry the Thai flag. I didn't anticipate the magnitude of the event until then. I had just focused on skiing, on training. At the Opening Ceremony I thought, Oh boy, this is huge." A professor of engineering at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, Nagvajara was inspired to take up cross country skiing and compete in the Olympics after seeing Kenyan Philip Boit come 92nd, and last...
...Most of the 11, however, are like Nagvajara and his American wife Gina - they pay for everything themselves. The Nagvajaras estimate it has cost them about $10,000 to pay for travel to races in Switzerland, around the U.S. and Salt Lake. His Olympic uniform - a plain blue ski jacket with "Thailand" in silver thread on the back - was embroidered for free by a Salt Lake company two days before the Games began. He skis on equipment he bought three years ago, and the Bulgarian biathlon team waxes his skis as a favor...
...Nagvajara qualified for Olympic entry by competing at internationally sanctioned races and convincing the Thai Olympic Committee to support his entry. Even after his dismal showing in the 30km event, he was ready to compete again this Tuesday in the 1.5K sprint - a race he'd never tried before. His volunteer coach, a former Bulgarian biathlete, had already returned to Craftsbury Nordic Center in Vermont, so he received final instructions over the phone. "If I ski lower than four minutes, gee, I'll really be celebrating," he said before crossing the line in 4:14.55, 68th...
...Philip Boit, Kenya, Cross Country Theodoros Christodoulou, Cyprus, Alpine skiing Andrei Drygin, Tajikistan, Alpine skiing Gian Matteo Giordani, San Marino, Alpine skiing Alexander Heath, South Africa, Alpine skiing Shiva Keshavan, India, Luge Jayaram Khadka, Nepal, Cross country Arturo Kinch, Costa Rica, Cross country Isaac Menyoli, Cameroon, Cross country Prawat Nagvajara, Thailand, Cross country Patrick Singleton, Bermuda, Luge