The tropics can also participate in ice and snow sports, and Caribbean countries look forward to making history at the Beijing Winter Olympics

Source: Global Times - Global Network

At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, which will open on the 4th of next month, a number of Caribbean countries will make history: Haiti has athletes participating in the Winter Olympics for the first time, Jamaica has skiers on the stage for the first time, and the Trinidad and Tobago delegation will return to the Winter Olympics after 20 years... Inspired by the spirit of sportsmanship, these tropical countries, which have not seen ice and snow for many years and are considered to have no chance of the Winter Olympics, have never given up their winter Olympic dreams.

At 11:00 local time on the 19th, Tedo Olympic Committee President Brian Lewis announced at an online press conference that the country's men's snow team had qualified for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Lewis has been waiting for the news for a long time, and the last time the Turdo athletes played at the Winter Olympics was in Salt Lake City in 2002.

"Ice and snow sports are not the strength of the Caribbean countries, but the fact that the Turdo Snow Team was able to participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics is an important opportunity for the development of ice and snow sports. If our people can continue to participate, there will be more possibilities in the future. In an exclusive interview with the Global Times reporter, Lewis said that before the qualifications were officially confirmed by the International Olympic Committee, he and his colleagues were already preparing for the trip to Beijing.

According to local media reports in Tedo, the country is expected to have a 6-person delegation to Beijing, including 4 snowmobilers and 2 officials. Among them, Mikel Thomas is the first athlete in the country to participate in both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, after being a 400-meter hurdles player.

Lewis told the Global Times that Trudeau competed in three consecutive Winter Olympics from 1994 to 2002. At the 2020 Winter Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, Abigail Vière, an alpine skier born in the United States and to parents of both from Trudeau, chose to represent Trudeau, the island nation's first Young Winter Olympics player. "Although There is only sunshine in Tridor, we have expatriates living in North America and Europe, where there is a very long culture of winter sports, and these expatriates and their descendants can help Tridor in this area." A Caribbean country like Jamaica has a tradition of sprinting, and snowmobilers need to push a bobsleigh run to get initial speed, lewis said, which is an advantage for the region to participate in bobsleigh sports.

As Lewis mentioned, second-generation immigrants from the Caribbean are an important force for these countries to participate in the Winter Olympics, as exemplified by Jamaican alpine skier Benjamin Alexander. Earlier this month, Alexander finished seventh in the Giant Slalom event at the National Ski Championships in Liechtenstein, where he eventually won a ticket to the Beijing Winter Olympics, becoming the first skier to represent Jamaica at the Winter Olympics and the 15th winter Olympics in the country's history.

Born in the UK to a Jamaican father, Alexander, 38, first started skiing six years ago, before which he was a global DJ. In an interview with the Global Times, Alexander said, "There are a lot of mixed races like him in the UK, and mixed races always mean a minority, and most of the skiers are white. As the 'black representative' of skiing among white friends, I never considered representing any country other than Jamaica. For Alexander's story, the Guardian reported that tactics and technology allowed the engineering graduate and former DJ to not only make sports history, but also succeed as a black athlete in the long-established white sport of skiing.

The first Winter Olympics in Haiti's history, Richardson Viano, and Alexander, were born in France and qualified for the Giant Slalom event at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2021. In an interview with the International Olympic Committee, Viano said that if it were not for a phone call from the president of the Haitian Ski Federation, he might have given up skiing. "I don't have talent, there was no snow in my complexion. I had to pay a lot to get there. Viano said he hopes to set an example for his native Haiti and send a signal of hope to the Haitian people.

In these countries, where temperatures rarely fall below 20 degrees and are surrounded by sand and waves, it is undoubtedly difficult to maintain winter sports with the goal of the Winter Olympics. Lewis admitted to the Global Times that while the Tedo Olympic Committee can provide some support, in most cases, athletes need to find their own funds, and most winter sports are very expensive. Alexander, who is "halfway out of the house", also said that he has invested a lot of savings in skiing, and has not had a full-time coach all along, and can only train in the form of "buying lessons" across Europe.

"Funding is a challenge for us, but recent efforts have raised the profile of Theodore snowmobiling, especially when athletes return to the Winter Olympics after a 20-year absence," said Lewis, who hopes the Beijing Winter Olympics will be a "booster" for the country's snowmobiling.

Lewis, who participated in the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games with the delegation, is particularly looking forward to the Winter Olympics, saying that despite the challenges and obstacles of the epidemic, the Beijing Winter Olympics still welcome the participation of athletes from all over the world and work with everyone to create a better future and a community with a shared future for mankind. "I am very confident and supportive of the success of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will inspire the whole world and unite all people." Lewis said.