Richardson Viano: The Haitian skier ready to make history at the Winter Olympics

The mercury oozed over 30 degrees Celsius in Port-au-Prince this week, more than 8,000 miles from where 19-year-old Haitian skier Richardson Viano is preparing to make his unlikely Winter Olympics debut.

Viano hopes his appearance in the men’s giant slalom in Beijing will help change the perception of a country routinely regarded as the poorest in the western hemisphere, and provide inspiration for children back home.

When he launches out of the start-gate on February 13, Viano will not only become the first athlete from Haiti to compete at a Winter Olympics, but also the first Caribbean skier in the Games’ history.

Orphaned at an early age, Viano was adopted by a French-Italian couple who took him to live in the Alps and started an unlikely journey that will culminate in him making history in the Chinese capital.

Viano told the PA news agency: “It is a dream for me to be here and represent Haiti in a Winter Olympics for the first time. I hope this will show our country is about more than earthquakes and other disasters.”

Viano’s dream was realised with the help of the wholly unlikely Haitian Ski Federation, set up by Jean-Pierre Roy, a Haitian who lived in France and managed to represent Haiti at the World Ski Championships in 2011 at the age of 47, where he finished 78th.

It is a dream for me to be here and represent Haiti in a Winter Olympics for the first time. I hope this will show our country is about more than earthquakes and other disasters- Richardson Viano

Roy staged the first Haitian Ski Championships in Morzine, France the following year, and unearthed Viano, who had grown to love skiing to the extent that he had targeted a place in the French team before Roy called three years ago.

Viano thought that initial