American Samoa
Nathan Crumpton in Beijing will be the representative of one of the most exotic countries for the Winter Olympics - American Samoa.
For a small island in the middle of Oceania, this will be the second appearance in the history of the competition and the first in 28 years.
In 1994, the US-controlled territory competed in the two-man bobsleigh competition, and now it will compete in its sister skeleton.
Crumpton was born into the family of an employee of the American diplomatic service in Kenya.
From school, he was involved in athletics, and then switched to skeleton.
He managed to break into the US team and even took eighth place in the world championships twice.
With such results, Crumpton could have made it to the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang four years ago, but missed them due to injury and after that he almost ended his career.
The road to the American national team was closed, and then Crumpton decided to represent American Samoa, with which he is connected on the maternal side.
He set himself the goal of qualifying for the Winter Olympics again and at the last moment he nevertheless achieved it.
Interestingly, these Games are still not the first for Nathan.
As a new athlete from American Samoa, he also qualified easily for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he competed in the 100m.
There he took one of the last places, but in Beijing he can try to avoid such a fate and compete for getting into the top 20.
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Posted by Nathan Ikon Crumpton (@nathanikoncrumpton)
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago returns to the winter Olympic scene after 20 years.
Previously, the country regularly participated in bobsleigh competitions, but in 2002 its last performance took place at the moment.
The local athletes no longer had the enthusiasm to keep up the expensive hobby.
Pilot Axel Braun is now writing a new chapter in the history of Trinidadian sports.
In the past, he tried to break into the Great Britain team, but he appeared only at one World Cup stage as an overclocker.
To manage the crew himself, he needed to change the country.
He turned his attention to Trinidad and Tobago, where his mother was from, and decided to revive his bobsleigh tradition.
As dispersed, Brown received native Trinidadians who switched to a new kind of track and field athletics.
Andre Marcano will be his main teammate and Mikel Thomas as a backup.
The latter was once a hurdling star.
He competed at three Olympics, including in Beijing, and took tenth place at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.
Already now we can say that Trinidad and Tobago will achieve its best result at the Winter Olympics.
In 1998, their two took the 32nd line, but only 30 crews will perform in China.
At the same time, the athletes themselves set themselves the task of getting into the top 20.
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Posted by Axel Brown (@theaxelbrown)
Nigeria
Nigeria's debut at the Winter Olympics took place four years ago, when Africans were represented by bobsledders and a skeletonist.
The first skier in the history of the country will perform in Beijing.
His name is Samuel Ikpefan, and strictly speaking, he is a native of France with Nigerian roots.
The man grew up in the Alps, where almost everyone tries to ski, although not everyone succeeds in becoming professional athletes.
Ikpefan also tried, but gave up the sport when he was not needed by the French team.
Five years later, Samuel learned that Nigeria, where his father was from, had its own ski federation.
With her help, he again got the chance to become a skier and compete in major competitions.
To get the right to represent an African country, Ikpefan needed to visit it for the first time and show his skills to local functionaries.
Roller ski races were organized for him at the 60,000-seat stadium in Abuja, where the football team usually plays.
Demonstration performances attracted a lot of spectators and were shown on television.
Ikpefan has not yet achieved great success in cross-country skiing.
He has competed in only two World Cups, where his best result is 73rd in the sprint.
A year ago, in Falun, the Nigerian even crossed paths with Alexander Bolshunov, who discussed one of the races with him.
In memory of that meeting, the skier had a photograph with a Russian.
After that, the Nigerian also showed up for the World Cup.
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Posted by Ikpefan Samuel Uduigwome (@ikpefansamuel)
Haiti
The Winter Olympics in Beijing will be the first in which the Haitian flag will fly over the stadium.
The Caribbean country will be represented by 19-year-old skier Richardson Viano.
At the age of three, he was adopted by a French climbing guide and, following the example of his peers who were born in the Alps, tried his hand at slalom.
It was not possible to achieve great success, and the young man was already thinking about quitting the sport for the sake of his studies, when one day a certain Jean-Pierre Roy contacted him and offered to go to the Haiti national team.
It was the head of the local ski federation, who in the past he founded it himself in order to be able to compete at the World Championships under the flag of his homeland.
Rua was looking for new talent to represent Haiti in competition and found Viano who had moved to France.
He enthusiastically accepted the proposal to change sports citizenship.
Two years later, Richardson got to the World Championships, where he took a fairly high 35th place in giant slalom among hundreds of participants.
Now the young Haitian will try his hand at a larger competition.
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Posted by 𝓡𝓘𝓒𝓗𝓐𝓡𝓓𝓢𝓞𝓝 𝓥𝓘𝓐𝓝𝓞 (@_richardsonviano_)
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has never been represented at the Winter Games, but now it will fill the gap.
In this she was helped by a large-scale competition announced by the local sports federation.
They expressed a desire to actively develop winter disciplines and expressed their readiness to support athletes who want to compete for the country.
The federation received more than a hundred applications and selected eight candidates.
Only two skiers, Fayik Abdi and Salman al-Khovaish, managed to qualify for the Olympics.
At the same time, there was only one quota for the country, and it had to be played at the control training.
The ticket to Beijing went to Abdi, who will compete in the giant slalom.
But local functionaries decided to reward al-Khovaish in the same way as if he still passed the selection.
In the future, Saudi Arabia plans to send more delegations to the Winter Olympics.
Perhaps one day it will be possible to declare our own hockey team.
The Czech coach Petr Vechko, who now works with local clubs, has already been invited to the country for this.
Athletes from Eritrea, Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, East Timor, Bolivia, Ecuador, Malta, Malaysia, Pakistan, Puerto Rico and Thailand will also perform in Beijing.
In total, 90 countries will be represented in China, which is two less than four years ago in Pyeongchang.
To repeat the record, it was required that the DPRK and Kenya also send their teams, but for various reasons they refused this.