Torino 2006

in fact, pretty much every possible sport involving ice or snow is now in the winter games except the snowball-putt, synchronised snowman-building and whatever it is Finns do after saunas with birch twigs...
Notionally, 85 countries are represented in Turin. But this includes the Thai team (a 48-year-old cross-country skier), Costa Rica (a 49-year-old downhill skier), and Venezuela (a 52-year-old who did not fall off and thus avoided last place in the luge).
But the most telling of Winter Olympic statistics is this one: the American speed skater Shani Davis, gold medallist in the 1,000m, was said to be only the third black athlete in the 82-year history of the Winter Olympics to win any kind of medal. It’s not just the snow that’s white.
FT, 25.02.2006