This Mexican Triumphed At The Winter Olympics

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The spirit of unity generated by the sport was experienced this Friday at the PyenongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, at the end of the brutal 15 km cross-country ski race.

Mexican skier Germán Madrazo, who learned to ski just a few months ago, captured the attention of the public for the way he celebrated the fact that he was the last to cross the finish line. The 43-year-old novice skier arrived with a huge tricolor flag in the wind and a winning smile that not even the qualifying marker could take away.

As he crossed the finish line, other competitors from countries with little tradition of winter sports awaited him, such as the Colombian Sebastián Uprimny or the Tongan Pita Taufatofua, who lifted him in his arms as if he had been the winner of the test.

In fact, the real winner, the Swiss Dario Cologna, also joined the celebration and congratulated the Mexican for the feat of concluding the test, in which 119 participants were registered.

Madrazo, who is originally from the state of Querétaro but now lives in the United States, put on skis for the first time last year and traveled to Iceland to learn this Nordic sport in order to qualify for the PyeongChang Games.

After months of personal and economic sacrifice, plus a hard 15-kilometer race of almost an hour, it is not surprising that the Mexican was so happy.