Word: skier
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Last Thursday afternoon, during the ceremonial raising of the national flags at the Vancouver Olympic village, the Mexican national anthem blared over the loudspeaker. Mexico's lone Winter Olympian, alpine skier Hubertus von Hohenlohe, stood at attention, right arm crossing his chest. That's right - Hubertus von Hohenlohe. If you're thinking that name doesn't sound very Mexican, you'd be absolutely correct. In fact, he's a descendant of German royalty, the son of Prince Alfonso Hohenlohe and Princess Ira Fürstenberg. Can't get more Mexican than that...
...weird stories about the athletes from warm-weather countries that would seem to have no business participating in their chosen sports. And although the Jamaican bobsledders failed to qualify for the Olympics this time, the Vancouver Games offer plenty of intriguing tales. In addition to the middle-aged German skier prince representing Mexico, there's a speedskater from the Cayman Islands, cross-country skiers from Bermuda, Ethiopia and Ghana, and a few other oddballs who marched in Friday's opening ceremony. Even Jamaica still got to raise its flag: a freestyle skier from the country earned a spot...
Lindsey Van holds the record - among both men and women - for the longest jump off Whistler, British Columbia's normal ski jump, built for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The 25-year-old skier trains six days a week, 11 months a year, and has been jumping for the past 19 years. But when the Games kick off on Feb. 12, the 2009 women's ski-jumping world champion will be nowhere in sight. That's because women aren't allowed to ski jump in the Olympics. (See TIME's 25 Winter Olympic athletes to watch...
With just two days before the Winter Olympics are set to get under way in Vancouver, NBC officials should be celebrating the onset of a much needed prime-time-ratings boost. But now they may be cursing their continuing bad luck. That's because American skier Lindsey Vonn, the blond speed beauty whose quest for five medals over the two weeks of the Olympics was supposed to boost ratings to Michael Phelps-ian levels, might be forced to sit out these Games. (See 25 Winter Olympic athletes to watch...
...Many sports fans will point to the famed Sports Illustrated jinx for hexing Vonn: the skier got the double whammy, having appeared both on a recent cover and inside the pages of its annual swimsuit issue. But she's just the latest Olympic skier to stumble out of the gate. Four years ago, Bode Miller was the American Olympic cover boy (on TIME, no less). But instead of collecting all the hardware in the Italian Alps, he partied harder than he competed and became a cultural pariah. Vonn is the anti-Bode, happily married to her skier husband and coach...