Andrus Veerpalu from Estonia is competing in the Winter Olympics 2010 in Vancouver in cross-country skiing.
Cross-country skiing may lack mass appeal in North America, but it reigns supreme among winter sports in northern Europe. In the Baltic nation of Estonia, Andrus Veerpalu ranks up there with Skype and the Singing Revolution as the greatest sources of national pride. Veerpalu is the only winter athlete to represent Estonia at every Olympics since its independence in 1991. (Only one summer athlete, rower Juri Jaanson, can claim the same achievement.) At age 39, the Vancouver Games will mark the sixth appearance for the two-time Olympic champion.
At the 2002 Salt Lake Games, Veerpalu became the first Estonian winter athlete to win a gold medal when he captured the 15km interval start, raced in the classical style. Four years later, Veerpalu defended his Olympic title in the race. When he won the distance at the 2009 World Championships, he became the first cross-country skier in history to hold the Olympic and World Championship title in the same event at the same time. At the 2010 Games, the event will be held in Veerpalu's weaker technique, freestyle (skating), meaning his chances for a three-peat are highly unlikely. His best chance for a medal will be in the 50km mass start, which will feature the classical technique.
After winning the 30km classical at the 2001 World Championships for Estonia's first-ever cross-country skiing gold medal, Veerpalu received a congratulatory cell phone call from then-Estonian President Lennart Meeri, was greeted by hundreds of fans in the capital city of Tallinn and was later featured on commemorative stationary with a picture of him holding his gold medal above a caption that read: "Andrus Veerpalu—Estonia's first World Champion." When he won the 15km world title eight years later, there was no presidential call, and mostly media members welcomed him and his teammates at the Tallinn airport. However, he was greeted by his newborn daughter Anlourdees, who handed him a fresh bouquet of tulips, and a smaller (but equally appreciative) group of fans came out to congratulate him in his hometown of Otepaa.
The names of every member of Veerpalu's immediate family begin with the letter A. He married Angela after his Olympic debut in 1992. His teenaged children were named after favorite Olympians. Son Andreas, a blooming cross-country skier himself, is named after the Austrian ski jumper Andreas Goldberger, while daughter Anette is named after Norwegian cross-country skier Anette Boe. Added into the Veerpalu mix are son Anders and daughter Anlourdees.
At the end of the 2008-09 season, Austria's newspaper Kurier leaked Veerpalu's name from a list of 120 skiers, cyclists and swimmers connected with Walter Mayer, the Austrian cross-country skiing coach who was banned by the IOC for performing illegal blood transfusions on his team in 2002. In Veerpalu's case, the newspaper claimed that he had repeatedly stayed at the same Ramsau, Austria hotel as acclaimed blood supplier Stefan Matschiner at training camps, a claim that the skier and his coach Mati Alaver vehemently denied. Nevertheless, a cloud of suspicion hangs over the veteran.
Cross-country skiing may lack mass appeal in North America, but it reigns supreme among winter sports in northern Europe. In the Baltic nation of Estonia, Andrus Veerpalu ranks up there with Skype and the Singing Revolution as the greatest sources of national pride. Veerpalu is the only winter athlete to represent Estonia at every Olympics since its independence in 1991. (Only one summer athlete, rower Juri Jaanson, can claim the same achievement.) At age 39, the Vancouver Games will mark the sixth appearance for the two-time Olympic champion.
At the 2002 Salt Lake Games, Veerpalu became the first Estonian winter athlete to win a gold medal when he captured the 15km interval start, raced in the classical style. Four years later, Veerpalu defended his Olympic title in the race. When he won the distance at the 2009 World Championships, he became the first cross-country skier in history to hold the Olympic and World Championship title in the same event at the same time. At the 2010 Games, the event will be held in Veerpalu's weaker technique, freestyle (skating), meaning his chances for a three-peat are highly unlikely. His best chance for a medal will be in the 50km mass start, which will feature the classical technique.
After winning the 30km classical at the 2001 World Championships for Estonia's first-ever cross-country skiing gold medal, Veerpalu received a congratulatory cell phone call from then-Estonian President Lennart Meeri, was greeted by hundreds of fans in the capital city of Tallinn and was later featured on commemorative stationary with a picture of him holding his gold medal above a caption that read: "Andrus Veerpalu—Estonia's first World Champion." When he won the 15km world title eight years later, there was no presidential call, and mostly media members welcomed him and his teammates at the Tallinn airport. However, he was greeted by his newborn daughter Anlourdees, who handed him a fresh bouquet of tulips, and a smaller (but equally appreciative) group of fans came out to congratulate him in his hometown of Otepaa.
The names of every member of Veerpalu's immediate family begin with the letter A. He married Angela after his Olympic debut in 1992. His teenaged children were named after favorite Olympians. Son Andreas, a blooming cross-country skier himself, is named after the Austrian ski jumper Andreas Goldberger, while daughter Anette is named after Norwegian cross-country skier Anette Boe. Added into the Veerpalu mix are son Anders and daughter Anlourdees.
At the end of the 2008-09 season, Austria's newspaper Kurier leaked Veerpalu's name from a list of 120 skiers, cyclists and swimmers connected with Walter Mayer, the Austrian cross-country skiing coach who was banned by the IOC for performing illegal blood transfusions on his team in 2002. In Veerpalu's case, the newspaper claimed that he had repeatedly stayed at the same Ramsau, Austria hotel as acclaimed blood supplier Stefan Matschiner at training camps, a claim that the skier and his coach Mati Alaver vehemently denied. Nevertheless, a cloud of suspicion hangs over the veteran.
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