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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2005 
Alpine Skiing: It's No Snow Job - Mexico Has A Team
 Reuters
 Many of the world's best Alpine skiers are still fighting for starting places at the world championships in Italy, but one middle-aged, aristocratic pop singer has already made sure of his spot.
The descendant of a dethroned royal family from a former principality in what is now Germany, the 45-year-old Hubertus von Hohenlohe is set to compete in Bormio, Italy, for the Mexican ski team. In fact, he is the Mexican ski team.
After failing to make it into the national squad in his family home of Liechtenstein when he was a student, von Hohenlohe personally set up the Mexican ski federation in 1981, before going on to represent Mexico at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, then part of Yugoslavia.
Born in Mexico with a Mexican grandmother and some property in the country, von Hohenlohe does at least have stronger links to his adopted nation than many other country-swapping athletes.
With four Olympics and 11 world championships under his slowly expanding belt, he has already set several records for longevity, if not for speed.
"I'm actually an excellent skier," von Hohenlohe said this week, after completing the first leg of a World Cup giant slalom in Adelboden, Switzerland, more than 15 seconds behind the top racers. "The time looked worse than it really was, because I nearly skied out near the start and had to virtually begin again. I kept going because it was good practice for the world championships.
"It's very difficult to compete with the top guys though when you're not able to train all year."
It is difficult to train all year, von Hohenlohe points out, when you are maintaining simultaneous careers in pop music and photography.
"Basically I'm an artist," von Hohenlohe said with a shrug. "I have a photo exhibition in Hamburg later this month, and I've also been selling quite a lot of pop songs. In fact my latest record has just made it into the top 20 in Austria."
Judging by his performance in Adelboden, von Hohenlohe has a much stronger chance of topping the Austrian pop charts than he does of hearing the Mexican national anthem from the winner's podium in Bormio when the world championships start on Jan. 29.
Fortunately, though, Mexico's top skier has no illusions about his medal chances. "My goal in Bormio is to be among the fastest of the nonprofessionals, or perhaps to get within 10 seconds of the winning time," von Hohenlohe said. "The main reason I'm doing this though is because the exotic skiers seem to be dying out. There's nobody there any more, so I'm trying to keep that spirit up."
With a straight-backed posture more reminiscent of Michael Johnson, an American sprinter, than Hermann Maier, the Austrian ski champion, and setting off his appearance with a paint-chipped, pink helmet, von Hohenlohe is certainly a popular character with the crowds on the ski circuit.
But he insists that he is not trying to become the next sporting figure of fun after a British ski jumper, Eddie (The Eagle) Edwards, or Equatorial Guinea's Olympic swimmer, Eric (The Eel) Moussambani. "Perhaps some people will see me as a figure of fun, but I don't think I'm like Eddie the Eagle. He was a lot worse than me.
"I'm really a great skier," he insisted. "I'm better than Klammer." Franz Klammer, the former Olympic champion, world champion and 26-time World Cup winner? "Not better than him when he was at his best," von Hohenlohe modestly conceded. "But I beat him when I ski against him now. I've taken part in a lot of legends' races and I've beaten all the top names."
Beyond the combined race in Wengen on Friday, and the world championships in Bormio, von Hohenlohe says his next goal is to qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Unlike at the world championships, would-be Olympians now have to meet a quota of 120 points in International Ski Federation, or FIS, competition if they are to qualify for the Games. The new rules prevented von Hohenlohe from making it to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and he knows they will also make it extremely difficult for him to accomplish his latest mission. |
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