Medals remain dominated by a few nations

TURIN, Italy --Olympic officials beamed with pride as athletes from 80 nations, the most ever at a Winter Games, marched in Turin's opening ceremonies. Yet well before the first event, more than half those nations knew their chances for medals were infinitesimal.

Though intrepid African skiers and Caribbean bobsledders entertain fans and bestow an aura of universality, the Winter Olympics -- unlike its summer counterpart -- remains an exclusive club. The medals are dominated by about 15 northern countries wealthy enough to afford the high-cost facilities and equipment demanded for almost every event, and efforts to strengthen other regions' teams are not expected to change the equation any time soon.

Only 39 of the International Olympic Committee's 203 member nations have ever won a Winter Games medal. No medals have ever gone to Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia or the Middle East; many Muslim countries have been focused on violent anti-Western protests over the past two weeks, not at all on the Olympics.

On one hand, Olympic officials are unapologetic about the medal inequity. As IOC President Jacques Rogge said during these games, "It's very difficult to have a downhill race in the middle of the Sahara."

On the other hand, the IOC fervently wants to offer solidarity and support to warm-weather countries -- to keep their top sports officials enthusiastic about the Winter Games and offer at least a slim hope that they might someday field a medal contender.

"We can contribute a little, but we can't change the natural evolution of the world," said Pere Miro, director of the IOC's Olympic Solidarity program, which distributes TV revenue to help less powerful sporting nations develop summer and winter athletes.

By and large, the money subsidizes individual training; Miro said it was too expensive for his program to help finance facilities such as skating rinks or bobsled tracks.

Could a Latin or African country win a medal in the next few Winter Games?

"The logical answer is no," Miro said in an interview. "But maybe there would be a surprise -- some athlete from the south training in a northern country. It's less than a 1 percent chance, but it could happen."

That kind of expatriate training, often over the course of many years, is now one of the main avenues for athletes representing warm-weather countries to qualify for the Olympics. Ethiopia fielded a cross-country skier who has lived in the U.S. since childhood; Turkey's first-ever Olympic figure skater moved to Canada when she was 12; Algeria's Christelle Douibi, who finished last in the women's downhill, grew up in France.

Miro said Olympic Solidarity can provide limited financial aid to help develop such athletes but doesn't want to encourage large-scale relocations.

"We're not going to promote a big influx of Kenyans going to Sweden to practice winter sports," he said. "But if some are there anyway, why not help?"

The easy -- but misleading -- explanation for the winter medal disparity is that countries with little or no snow have no chance.

South Korea and China have developed into steady medal winners through well-coached skating programs that depend not at all on snow and in theory could be replicated in more southerly nations with rinks. Chile and Argentina do have snow and towering mountains, as well as top-notch ski resorts, yet neither has ever won a winter medal.

Bolivia, one of South America's poorest countries, also abounds with snowy Andean peaks, yet skiing has never taken root, the Olympics are absent from TV, and soccer reports fill newspaper sports sections.

"I don't know when they're happening," Jose Luis Apaza of La Paz, Bolivia, said of the Winter Games. "Soccer, volleyball, basketball -- that's what attract people."

Ice skating rinks are proliferating gradually in warm-weather countries. Brazil, Thailand, India and South Africa belong to the International Skating Union, which requires members to have good rinks, but -- without top home-based coaches -- they aren't seen as imminent medal threats.

"Unlike summer sports, it's difficult to improvise the facilities for winter sports -- it becomes very, very expensive," said Sam Ramsamy, an IOC member from South Africa. "We have to rely on enthusiasts who go to northern hemisphere to train."

South Africa's three-athlete team in Turin is the biggest from Africa; its best showing was 21st place in skeleton by Tyler Botha. Senegal's first Olympic skier, Leyti Seck, finished second to last in the men's super-G.

Despite the modest results, these and other warm-country athletes met recently stiffened qualification criteria and generally have performed competently -- not evoking past embarrassments such as a Moroccan skier being lapped in the 1992 giant slalom or a Mexican cross-country racer finishing nearly an hour behind the next-slowest skier at Calgary in 1988.

"We don't want that artificial participation -- we want dignity," Miro said. "The total number of countries in itself is not success. We want the athletes who deserve to compete."