The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are kicking off later today, and all the usual suspect countries are represented:  Canada, the United States, Sweden, Ethiopia… wait, Ethiopia?  But, they don’t even have any snow!  Their lone Olympian, Robel Teklemariam, came to the United States at age 9 when his mother’s job got her transferred to the UN Headquarters in New York.  That’s where he fell in love with the sport of cross country skiing, which he became very good at while attending Lake Placid’s North Country School.  So good that he got a full scholarship to the University of New Hampshire to ski, and then later, well… he became a Winter Olympian, making his second appearance for his country at these very games.

Robel doesn’t have any medal hopes, but he does have big dreams.  His goal for Vancouver is to finish within 10 minutes of the winner of the 15K event, but his dream is to start a trend of Ethiopians competing in the Winter Olympics, and to spread his love of skiing at a high level to his homeland.  As we’ve seen, you don’t need to have snow to have a Winter Olympics.  Good luck, Robel!

Tags: Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics, Vancouver Olympics, Ethiopia, Ethiopian cross-country skiier, Robel Teklemariam, unusual athletes, Olympians, North Country School, New York, Lake Placid, University of New Hampshire

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