"We Are Competing Too"...Unusual Winter Olympic Participant Nations

17 Countries Send Just One Athlete to Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo
Ecuador's Rodriguez Serves as Federation President, Coach, and Athlete
Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, and Malta Also Take Part

The participation of some unusual countries in the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics is drawing attention.

According to USA Today, an American newspaper, on the 7th (local time), a total of 17 countries have sent only one athlete to this edition of the Games. They are Benin, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, San Marino, Singapore, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Most of them are countries not typically associated with snow and ice.

Klaus Rodriguez, the sole national representative of Ecuador, is an alpine skier born in 1979. He was born in Ecuador, lived in Australia, and has been training in Switzerland. He took the lead in establishing the Ecuador Ski Federation in 2016 and became the first Winter Olympian in Ecuador's history at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. At these Games, he is serving triple duty as federation president, coach, and athlete.

The Eritrean delegation from the African country is entering at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics. Milan=AFP Yonhap News

Eritrea, an African nation, is so closed-off that it does not even appear in the FIFA rankings, despite the fact that the F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has more member associations than the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Eritrean alpine skier Shannon-Ogbnai Abeda also made history at Pyeongchang 2018 as Eritrea's first-ever Winter Olympian, and with this edition of the Games he is appearing at the Winter Olympics for the third consecutive time. Abeda was born in Canada to a family of Eritrean refugees.

Even in Europe, where many winter sports powerhouses are concentrated, there are three countries that have sent "mini delegations": Malta, Monaco, and San Marino. For Malta, Jenny Eriksen, born to a Norwegian father and a Maltese mother, is the country's only representative, competing in women's cross-country skiing, while Monaco has dispatched a single athlete, alpine skier Arnaud Alessandria.