Brazilian skier

Taywood and I have been sent a couple of strange private emails by the
girlfriend of Brazilian marathoner turned cross-country ski racer, Helio
Freitas, who qualified for the Olympics. It seems she took offense
at our asking about rules governing qualifying for the Worlds and/or
Olympics (see thread "Worlds," 2/17/05), remembering back to the
Kenyan's experience at a previous event. Freitas had just skated for
the first time 5 weeks earlier and raced at Oberstdorf. At the Worlds,
he finished 22 minutes back in a 15k. In any case, the man from the
country without snow will be in Torino and his website is
http://brazilski.blogspot.com/.

Gene

Here's the article about him back then:

"The Brazilian athlete Helio Freitas became darling of the public in
the first cross-country race of the men's competition on Thursday.
Freitas started ninth of 122 competitors and he skied the 15 kilometers
freestyle race in 57:29.1 minutes - arriving 22 minutes after the
winner Pietro Piller Cottrer from Italy. Only 5 weeks ago had the
35-year old the South American started to learn how to skate. He hired
a coach of the region and a few days later he went into his first race
in the Continental Cup in Oberstdorf. In this competition it still took
him 1:01:31.3 hours to reach the finishing line.

Actually, Helio Freitas is a marathon runner. His big goal is to
participate in the Olympic Games. Because he failed to qualify for last
year's Olympic Games in Athens, he decided to make his dream come true
– this time in a winter ski event. “I am trying to improve my technique
and hope to see you again at the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino�, as
Freitas puts it not at all uncritical as far as his own person is
concerned. Completely exhausted but more than happy, he arrived in the
finish after having skied this rather difficult course of the
Oberstdorf World Championship. In the stadium, he was welcomed by the
standing ovations of 17 000 spectators. “It has been a fantastic
experience to participate in this competition. The World Championships
are a great event�, said Freitas. “I would like to thank all the
spectators for their outstanding support. I was rather tired already,
but they cheered me to the finishing line.� In the end, the Brazilian
ranked 121 even leaving behind another competitor, Brahim Aitboubella
from Morocco."

Its just as well I post under a spamfree email address, I didnt receive them !!
TW

Helio Freitas won't the only Brazilian skiing at Torino. Jaqueline Mourao, a
MTB racer who participated in the Athens games and first encounter with x-c
skiing was last May, just got selected on the Brazil Olympic XC Ski Team for
the wowen 10k event:

"Dec 17 2005"
"Training on a mountain bike in Brazil, is kind of like playing Russian
roulette. You never known if there is somebody with a weapon who is waiting
behind the next corner to rob your mountain bike... or your life! We thus
decided to spend the 2005-06 Winter in Quebec and do the 2006 MTB racing
season physical preparation using snowshoes and cross-country skis.
Last spring, we were welcomed by the last snowstorm of the winter on our
arrival in Canada. So I brought my wife for six hours of XC Ski touring out
in the backwoods of Mount-Sainte-Anne Provincial Park on May 1st, 2005
(...it was indeed in May!). From this moment on, instead of wanting to
divorce me, she went ski-crazy and she contacted the Brazilian Snow Sports
Federation in order to know how she could represent her country at the next
Winter Olympic Games... in XC Skiing!
Although I tried to convince her to take her time and wait until 2010, we
began intense training last September, after the last MTB race. Roller
Skiing, Skiing on sand, Ski videos, Skiing on 1 inch of snow, Skiing on ice,
Skiing in a snowstorm, Snow-ploughing on Skis, crossing Skis, Skiing in a
tree, wanting to break her Ski poles on the head of her Ski coach, Skiing
at -15 ºC for the first time of her life... on race day, first XC Ski
European Cup after only 30 days of XC Skiing on snow and seen snow for the
first time at the age of 26 years old! For three months, I tried to show her
all aspects of skiing, like no one else can.
Since last Saturday, we can start to believe that Jaqueline Mourão will be
the first ever Brazilian athlete (male or female) to qualify for Summer and
Winter Olympics. Even though the Olympic selection period ends officially on
January 15, Jaqueline is already very far ahead of her Brazilian rivals in
the FIS ranking used as selection criteria for the Brazil Olympic XC Ski
Team."

from: http://www.jaquemtb.com/home_torino.htm &
http://globoesporte.globo.com/ESP/No...2-4811,00.html

BarryT

"Gene Goldenfeld" wrote in message
et...
Taywood and I have been sent a couple of strange private emails by the
girlfriend of Brazilian marathoner turned cross-country ski racer, Helio
Freitas, who qualified for the Olympics. It seems she took offense
at our asking about rules governing qualifying for the Worlds and/or
Olympics (see thread "Worlds," 2/17/05), remembering back to the
Kenyan's experience at a previous event. Freitas had just skated for
the first time 5 weeks earlier and raced at Oberstdorf. At the Worlds,
he finished 22 minutes back in a 15k. In any case, the man from the
country without snow will be in Torino and his website is
http://brazilski.blogspot.com/.

Gene

BarryT wrote:
Helio Freitas won't the only Brazilian skiing at Torino. Jaqueline Mourao, a
MTB racer who participated in the Athens games and first encounter with x-c
skiing was last May, just got selected on the Brazil Olympic XC Ski Team for
the wowen 10k event:

Thanks Barry for the update.
The commentator on Eurosport pointed her out in that race, but didnt know her story.
I didnt hear how, or if, she finished. I posted here under the name taywood but
we didnt know her name.