"The Puerto Rican team at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games isn't large. In fact, Kellie Delka stands just 5-foot-3 and weighs about 120 pounds. That's it; that's Puerto Rico's entire team. Her only event is skeleton, in which athletes travel at about 80 mph down an icy mile-long track with 16 turns. And she won't be in the hunt for a medal in Saturday's final rounds after finishing 24th of 25 athletes in Friday's two heats."
"In 2002, the island was set to send a bobsled team to the Winter Games in Salt Lake City but one of its sledders couldn't prove he met Puerto Rico's residency requirement. Embarrassed, the local Olympic committee didn't just withdraw its two-man team, it ended recognition for all of the island's winter sports. No athlete would represent the territory in the Winter Games for another 16 years."
Kellie Delka is the sole member of Puerto Rico's team at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, competing only in skeleton. Skeleton athletes travel about 80 mph down a mile-long icy track. Delka finished 24th of 25 after Friday's two heats and will not contend for a medal. Puerto Rico's winter program was dismantled after a 2002 residency dispute canceled a bobsled team and led the Olympic committee to end recognition of winter sports. No athlete represented the territory again until 2018, and new federations for ice hockey and curling were later established. Delka moved to Puerto Rico in 2018 to help grow the winter federation and carried the flag in Beijing and Milan.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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