Tonight we end our video theme of Latino and Latin American athletes who will be competing at this month’s Winter Games with a look at the Paralympics.
This tenth version of the Winter Paralympics will be held next month in Vancouver and will include sports such as wheelchair curling and sledge hockey. The lone Latin American representatives come from Mexico: alpine skiers Arly Velásquez and Armando Ruiz. Both will compete in the slalom and giant slalom and, as you can see in the following video, Ruiz demonstrates his prowess on the “monoski”:
We continue our look at Latin American and Caribbean athletes participating at this month’s Winter Olympics with Errol Kerr.
You’ve probably heard of the Jamaican bobsled team that debuted in the 1988 winter games in Calgary and which served as inspiration for a corny Disney film. With Jamaica’s bobsledders failing to qualify for the Olympics, the country’s best chance of a medal falls on the shoulders of Errol Kerr.
The 23-year-old has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Jamaica but will represent the latter in the new Olympic sport of ski cross. As he told the Kansas City Star, Kerr will ski in honor of his late father and to bring joy to his countrymen:
"This is something I set out to do a long time ago," Kerr said recently. "This is the land of my father. This is in my DNA."
Kerr talks about feeding off the good vibes he gets from seeing Jamaicans embrace and help each other.
"I want to help them succeed," he said. "We're all going in debt right now trying to make this happen. God willing, we'll come away with a medal and people will get behind us and we'll be able to continue to do this for a number of years.
The men’s ski cross event will be held on the 21st; good luck Errol!
Online Sources- FIS, IMDB, New York Times, Kansas City Star
