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Jonathan White

“Feel the Rhythm! Feel the Rhyme! Get on up, it’s bobsled time! Cool Runnings!”
The 1993 Disney film of the same name tells the story of Jamaica’s 1988 Winter Olympic bobsleigh team capturing the watching world’s hearts.
It is the full extent of the knowledge of many people when it comes to tropical and warmer weather nations at the Winter Games.
Though it might come as a shock, there are plenty more examples of unexpected competitors proving that not growing up surrounded by snow and ice is no obstacle to reaching the peak of winter sports – and Beijing 2022 (February 4-20) is set to be no different.


The Philippines set the snowball rolling in 1972 when they sent two skiers to Japan to compete at the Sapporo Games. Juan Cipriano and Ben Nanasca made history without troubling the medal table in the slalom and giant slalom.
Mexico had made history as the first warm weather nation way back in 1928, when it sent a five-man bobsleigh team to St Moritz and finished a creditable 11th of 23.
Everything you need to know about Beijing 2022
They would not return to a Winter Games until Sarajevo in 1984 when the only Mexican competitor was the alpine skier Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who was born in Mexico but raised largely in Austria.
He came from a family of former European royals and represented Mexico at six Winter Games.
Costa Rica had joined the Winter Games four years earlier at Lake Placid in 1980 to become the second tropical nation, with Arturo Kinch being their one-man ski team.

아픔을 이겨내고 도전을 펼친 아르투로 킨치#아르투로킨치 #ArturoKinch pic.twitter.com/61VsHiAeR2
— 올림픽 (@olympiko) March 13, 2018

Kinch was back again four years later, competing against athletes from as far afield as Morocco (a first appearance since their debut in 1968), Lebanon (who had been at every Games since 1948) and debutants Senegal, represented by another one-man ski team Lamine Guèye.
Fellow debutants in 1984 included the British Virgin Islands (speed skater Erroll Fraser), Egypt (alpine skier Jamil El Reedy) and Puerto Rico (luger George Tucker), while Taiwan marked their second Winter Olympics appearance.
While the debuting Jamaicans took the headlines and the attention of the Hollywood scriptwriters four years later when they finished 14th, there were several more tropical and warm weather nations in attendance in Calgary.
No snow, no worries as Hong Kong plots bold path to 2022 Beijing Olympics
Fiji (cross-country skier Rusiate Rogoyawa), Guam (biathlete Judd Bankert), Guatemala (six athletes), Netherlands Antilles (a two-man bobsleigh team and solo luger) and the US Virgin Islands (alpine skier Seba Johnson) all made debuts, too.
Some have never been back, in part because of the so-called “Eddie The Eagle” rule that limited entrants to the top 30 per cent or top 50 finishers at an international event, whichever is fewer, named after British ski jumper Michael “Eddie The Eagle” Edwards. Senegalese skier Guèye was an outspoken critic of the ruling as being against the Olympic spirit.
Nevertheless, the new nations kept coming at Albertville in 1992 with Algeria (four skiers), Bermuda (luger Simon Payne) Brazil (seven skiers), Honduras (cross-country skier Jenny Palacios-Stillo) and Swaziland (now eSwatini) with alpine skier Keith Fraser.

#HappyBirthday to Michael "Eddie The Eagle" Edwards!

️ ⛷️ Let's remember his #inspiring story: @fisalpine @TeamGB pic.twitter.com/sfvzGY82wo
— Olympic Channel (@olympicchannel) December 5, 2017

Lillehammer in 1994 – after the Winter Olympics broke free from the Summer Games schedule – saw American Samoa and Trinidad & Tobago both send two-man bobsleigh teams for their Games debuts, while Israel sent figure skater Michael Shmerkin.
Nagano 1998 came next and with it the first Kenyan athlete, Philip Boit. The brother of 800m Olympic bronze medal winner Mike Boit, the runner-turned-skier finished dead last in the 10km cross-country event but proved an inspirational figure.
Venezuelan luger Iginia Boccalandro was another national debutant that year, as was Uruguayan skier Gabriel Hottegindre.
‘It was an honour to represent Hong Kong’: Ng wants more local Winter Olympians
In Salt Lake City four years later, there were debuts for Cameroon (cross-country skier Isaac Menyoli) and Thailand (cross-country skier Prawat Nagvajara). This was the same year that Hong Kong debuted with speed skaters Cordia Tsoi Po-yee and Christy Ren.
Turin 2006 was the debut of Ethiopia (cross-country skier Robel Teklemariam, who took up skiing after moving to the US aged nine) and Madagascar (alpine skier Mathieu Razanakolona), while Vancouver 2010 played host to first Winter Games appearances for the Cayman Islands (alpine skier Dow Travers), Colombia (alpine skier Cynthia Denzler), Peru (three skiers), and Ghana.
The “Snow Leopard”, Kwame-Nkrumah Acheampong, was Ghana’s one-man ski team, appearing seven years after he pulled on skis for the first time after moving to England and beginning work at an indoor ski slope.


Sochi in 2014 welcomed another raft of new faces. Dominica (husband and wife team cross-country skiers Angelica and Gary di Silvestri), East Timor (alpine skier Yohan Goutt Goncalves) and Paraguay (US-raised freestyle skier Julia Marino) all made debuts, as did Togo’s two skiers, Tonga (luger Bruno Banani, who was known as Fuahea Semi before changing his name as a marketing stunt for a German underwear manufacturer), and Zimbabwe (alpine skier Luke Steyn).
The most recent Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang 2018 added five more new names: Ecuador (cross-country skier Klaus Jungbluth Rodriguez), Eritrea (alpine skier Shannon-Ogbnai Abeda), Malaysia (alpine skier Jeffrey Webb and figure skater Julian Yee), Nigeria (three bobsledders) and Singapore (speed skater Cheyenne Goh). Hong Kong skier Arabella Ng became the first to compete under the Bauhinia flag in a snow sport, though the Olympics may be remembered best for bare-chested Tongan flag-bearer Pita Taufatofua.
Covid-19 casts doubt over whether there will be more new nations in Beijing next year but there is reason for hope for more than making human interest headlines.
‘It was so cool’ – History for HK’s Arabella Ng at Winter Olympics
While no tropical nation has ever won a Winter Olympic medal, semi-tropical and subtropical Australia has flown the flag for the warmer weather nations and the Southern Hemisphere.
Speed skater Steven Bradbury won at Salt Lake City in 2002 when the four leading finalists fell in front of him and he waltzed home in the 1,000m. A nod goes to Jamaica-born Canadian bobsledder Lascelles Brown, who won silver for Canada in 2006.
Surely it is only a matter of time before there is another, so why not Beijing 2022?


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Who gets Olympic gold, silver and bronze now that Russian skater Valieva has been banned for doping?

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

Cool Runnings: a history of tropical and warm weather nations at Winter Olympics

Team Tonga with flag bearer Pita Taufatofua arrive at the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in South Korea. Photo: EPA

Eileen Gu wins China’s first Winter X Games gold as Beijing 2022 countdown begins

Winter X Games rookie Eileen Gu holds her two gold medals and one bronze after winning the women’s ski slopestyle final at the 2021 Winter X Games. Photo: Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times via AP

CORRECTS TO THE ASPEN TIMES, NOT THE ASPEN DAILY NEWS - Winter X Games rookie Eileen Gu airs out of the superpipe during women's finals at the 2021 Winter X Games Aspen on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, in Aspen, Colo. Gu took home the gold in her first superpipe final. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times via AP)

Beijing 2022 Games ‘pressing ahead’ despite coronavirus threat and concerns about Tokyo Olympics in 2021

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen (left) and 2022 Winter Paralympic Games mascot (Shuey Rong Rong) are revealed during a ceremony in Beijing in September. Photo: AP

A view of the National Speed Skating Oval (NSSO), nick-named as Ice Ribbon, under construction for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Sep. 24, 2019. 24SEP19 SCMP/Simon Song

(200224) -- BEIJING, Feb. 24, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Jiandong (2nd R), Vice Mayor of Beijing and Executive Vice President of Beijing 2022, attends the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) World Broadcaster Meeting (WBM) online at Shougang headquarters in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2020. Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) World Broadcaster Meeting (WBM) was held in Madrid on Monday to discuss the coverage of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, attended by 172 representatives from the International Olympic Committee, OBS and Rights Holding Broadcasters (RHB) around the world. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

(200713) -- BEIJING, July 13, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on July 13, 2020 shows the countdown device of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 in a building of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympics at Shougang's old industrial park in Beijing, capital of China. The countdown device was unveiled on Monday. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

Tokyo 2020: Covid-19 overshadowing Olympic battle with climate change

Chinese performers dance during a ceremony to mark the arrival of the Olympic flag and start of the flag tour for the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022. Photo: AP

Beijing 2022  doubts grow with Covid-19 spike in Hebei

A Chinese flag and Olympic rings are seen on a jacket worn by a Chinese sportsman during a ceremony at Badaling Great Wall, in Beijing, China, in February, 2018. Photo: EPA

Chinese performers dance during a ceremony to mark the arrival of the Olympic flag and start of the flag tour for the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022 at a section of the Great Wall of China on the outskirts of Beijing Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Mascot Bing Dwen Dwen, left and 2022 Winter Paralympic Games mascot Shuey Rong Rong are revealed during a ceremony held at the Shougang Ice Hockey Arena in Beijing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

This photo taken on November 28, 2020, shows people riding on a ski lift at an indoor ski resort, the Sunac Snow Centre in Chengdu, the capital of southwest Sichuan province. - The 2022 Beijing Winter Games has inspired a boom in construction of indoor skiing centres. In China's southwest Sichuan province, known for its hot and steamy summers, there are plenty of mountains but little snow, and the best way for locals to tread the ice is indoors. (Photo by NOEL CELIS / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY: China-Oly-skiing-construction-entertainment, FOCUS by Helen Roxburgh

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Beijing 2022 will see tropical and warmer nations new and old after debuts at recent Winter Games, but they are more than human interest
Jamaica’s 1988 bobsleigh team followed by ‘The Snow Leopard’ and the Tongan who changed his name to market German underwear



Jamaica’s celebrated 1988 bobsleigh team followed by ‘The Snow Leopard’ and the Tongan who changed his name to market German underwear – but they are more than human interest stories.


Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018

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Explainer | Cool Runnings: a history of tropical and warm weather nations at Winter Olympics

Beijing 2022 will see tropical and warmer nations new and old after debuts at recent Winter Games, but they are more than human interest Jamaica’s 1988 bobsleigh team followed by ‘The Snow Leopard’ and the Tongan who changed his name to market German underwear

Beijing 2022 will see tropical and warmer nations new and old after debuts at recent Winter Games, but they are more than human interest

Jamaica’s 1988 bobsleigh team followed by ‘The Snow Leopard’ and the Tongan who changed his name to market German underwear