Word: teruel
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Like many of the athletes from the smaller countries, Teruel is painfully aware that his Olympic dream might be an easy target for journalist jokes and nationalist resentments. Born to Filipino parents in Buffalo, New York, he visited the Philippines only once in his first 20 years, does not really speak Tagalog and freely admits, "If I had grown up in the Philippines, I probably wouldn't be here." At first, he says, "I felt a little bit guilty, like I was a fraud." He was embarrassed that a rich doctor's son from New York State should be representing...
...competing in the Olympics, for Teruel, is a chance to combat the apathy he sees all around him and to make his small voice heard above the fray. "You can't have a fair society," he says, "but what else have you got to go for? The people who really could do something don't feel like they can. And the people who are really dangerous do everything...
...days later, exactly 100 places behind Tomba, Teruel takes off. As he glides down the course, the announcer welcomes "our first Philippinian ((sic)) racer" and changes his name to something unintelligible. Thousands of Italians waved flags for Tomba; when Teruel completes his run, he looks around for cheers and finds none. One French volunteer gives him a thumbs-up sign and two others clap. Spectators in the stands by now are as rare as daisies in the snow. The photographers have gone off for lunch, and the TV crews are preparing their Tomba stories. Still, the man now in 85th...
...Teruel begins his second run with the sun setting fast behind the mountains, the public-address system, which had been shouting "Absolutely superb! Incredible!" as other skiers took the slope, simply announces, "Michael Teruel, from Buffalo, in the Philippines." But Teruel, who finishes 71st -- 36 places higher than where he started -- is exultant. "I can't wait to go back to see the dean," he says. His friends won't see him on TV, he says, but he feels something has been achieved. Moreover, he adamantly opposes any official ruling that would limit the number of competitors...
...little later, at a Tomba press conference, the second -- and most successful -- Filipino athlete in Winter Games history giggles with unstoppable delight at everything the champion says. Teruel is thinking now, he says, of trying for the Summer Games. "I know it's unrealistic," he adds with a sheepish smile, "but when something's unrealistic, I really...