Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

competed at the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

from 7 to 23 February 2014, in its

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

debut. The nation was represented by two cross-country skiers.

Competitors

Cross-country skiing

In November 2012, the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

asked Dominica if it had athletes to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics. In response, Angelica and Gary di Silvestri created the Dominica Ski Federation and qualified for the games. Angelica was born and raised in Italy and Gary was from the United States. Neither had cross-country skied before the age of 30. Neither skier completed their event in Sochi. Angelica did not start her race after an injury during training. Had Angelica competed in her race, she would have become the oldest woman to compete in a

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

race at the

, surpassing

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen (born 8 November 1964) is a Norway, Norwegian cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skier. Her first Olympic medal was a silver 4 × 5 km relay at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. At the 2006 Win ...

, who competed as a 41-year-old at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. Gary did not finish due to illness. The appearance of the di Silvestris received criticism from several journalists; neither athlete had any familial ties to Dominica or had ever resided there, and they had only visited the island on a single occasion. They received Dominican citizenship from an investment program and qualified for the Games by competing in low-level races where they finished among the last-place skiers, but earned some qualifying points simply by virtue of being finishers. Several stories cited the team as examples for the need to close loopholes in both acquisition of citizenship and in maintaining competitive qualifying standards for the Games. ;Distance

References

External links

* * {{Country at games navbox, Dominica, Olympics Nations at the 2014 Winter Olympics

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2014 in Dominica sport