Ethiopia Ski Team

Currently, there is only one skier on the Ethiopia Ski Team; Robel Teklemariam. Our dream is that he won't be the last.

Below is a brief bio on Robel:

Robel Teklemariam is an Ethiopian skier who fulfilled his dream to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics, Torino, Italy, as the first skier for Ethiopia. He competed in in the men's 15 km classical cross-country skiing. He was 9 minutes and 52.5 seconds behind gold medallist Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia.

Ethiopia is a country renowned for it’s’ marathon runners, but no one associates it with snow and skiing!

photo courtesy: addis life magazine

Robel, who was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1974 moved to New York, when his mother took a position with the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) in 1983. Robel did not like New York City schools nor the big city itself. His mother then enrolled him in a small boarding school (North Country School) in Lake Placid, New York. Lake Placid was the site of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Robel was introduced to skiing (both Alpine and Nordic) while at school there, and fell in love with cross-country ski racing. In fact, the second time he ever put on skis was to compete in an event. Robel lost to a boy who passed him three times before he even completed one lap. Eight years later he beat this same boy in several university (NCAA division 1) competitions.

At the age of twelve, a spectator at one of Robel's races said to him jokingly, that he should represent Ethiopia in the Olympics, and thus was born Robel's dream to represent his country in the Olympics. Nineteen years later he fulfilled his dream.

After competing in the Junior Olympics all four years of high school, Robel graduated as an All-American, and the first skier with an athletic scholarship to the University of New Hampshire, which boasts one of the top-ten ranked ski teams in the country. He raced in the NCAA championships his junior year, where he ranked as one of the top thirty in the country. In the winter of 2004 Robel placed third at the Alley Loop in Crested Butte, Colorado, finishing the competition despite breaking his pole at the start. In 2005, he placed second in this same race. Robel is also a fully certified level III ski instructor for the Professional Ski Instructors of America, Rocky Mountain Division.

Robel Teklemariam FIS Bio & Race Results

Follow Robel on Panasonic Blog - Twitter

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Cross Country Skier Robel Teklemariam

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Ethiopia Ski Team