On the streets of Ethiopia’s capital city, the blur of a lithe, dreadlocked figure cruising by on roller skis had become unusually common in recent days.

That blur was Robel Teklemariam, Ethiopia’s one-man cross-country ski team, training in the desert sun for the Winter Olympics, where he’ll represent his country for a second time.

“I’m ready to race for sure,” said Teklemariam, 35, in a recent phone interview from Addis Ababa, where he was finalizing his paperwork before flying to Vancouver, Canada for the Winter Games.

If the words “Ethiopian cross-country skier” sound like a joke, Teklemariam is a serious racer. A 1993 graduate of Carbondale’s Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Teklemariam was a top high school cross-country ski racer. He was a junior Olympian, and became the first to win a full scholarship to the University of New Hampshire for cross-country skiing.

Teklemariam has no illusions he’ll bring a medal back to Ethiopia. But since he was a child learning to ski in Lake Placid, N.Y., home of the 1980 Winter Games, representing Ethiopia in skiing has been a dream. His other dream, he said, is to make that dream come true for future generations of Ethiopians.

“A medal for me is a future gold for a future Ethiopian,” Teklemariam said.

He’ll get a hero’s welcome in Vancouver, where the city’s Ethiopian community has planned a ceremony of traditional food, music and dance to welcome him. Teklemariam is returning the favor, offering ski and snowboard classes for Ethiopian youth.

“We’re from Africa, a place with no snow,” said Vancouver event organizer Meseret Taye, who confessed she had always been more interested in the Summer Olympics than the Winter Games. “It’s a really good thing he’s doing. He’s inspiring other people.”

Teklemariam won’t be the only African at the Winter Olympics. At least five other African nations — Morocco, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Senegal — will be represented, but most of those athletes are new to snow. Teklemariam has been skiing most of his life.

Ethiopia is no stranger to Olympic medals, but those have always come in the Summer Games, when its legendary runners take to the starting blocks. The Horn of Africa nation does have snow in its rugged mountains, but it’s not exactly a skier’s paradise.

Teklemariam wants to change that. He wants to see Ethiopians take advantage of the snow that sometimes remains for months in the Semien Mountains. And he wants Ethiopians living in cold climates abroad to strap on skis and start competing.

He wasn’t the first African to compete in Olympic cross-country skiing. Kenyan runners who tried to make the transition to skiing beat him to it. But he did become the first Ethiopian cross-country skier, forming a skiing association, which his brother and sister run, and a ski team in his home country on his own in time for the Torino Games four years ago.

“My goal is for Ethiopia to be a mainstay in the Winter Olympics and have something established domestically for people to ski and train,” he said.

The fourth of six children, Teklemariam came to the U.S. as a 9-year-old boy when his mother’s United Nations job had her transferred to New York.

“He always loved the mountains. He always loved nature. That was why he couldn’t stand New York City,” said his mother, Yesherek Denise, who today owns an Ethiopian restaurant in Richmond, Va.

“Living with nature, that was his passion,” she said, “from childhood, from when he was a baby. But of course, the opportunity to ski was something new to explore.”

He ended up at the private North Country School in Lake Placid, where he fell in love with the sport. That love led him to CRMS, a private high school with an emphasis on outdoor education.

“When he came in, he was a pretty small, gangly kid, but he obviously had a pretty good feel for skis and expressed an interest in skiing cross-country,” said Mark Clark, who was coach of CRMS’s cross-country ski team. “He developed into a really, really good skier.”

Teklemariam was competing against — and as well as — some of the top skiers in the state, Clark said. He was a disciplined skier, technically-strong and driven.

“Really, the fuel that drove his skiing came from within,” Clark said. “He was a soulful kid and an awesome kid.”

Teammate Laura McCormick remembered Teklemariam as a dedicated athlete who had a way of making himself at home in places where he might seem like an outsider. The Winter Olympics is just one more of those, she said.

“This is exciting to see,” said McCormick, director of alumni and annual fund for CRMS, “not only that he is achieving the high level that he is, but I think it’s great that he’s forging a new path for Ethiopian kids to think outside the box.”

Teklemariam’s goal is to beat his performance from four years ago. He was among a number of Olympians sidelined by hemoglobin levels that exceeded Olympic standards.

Teklemariam was never accused of doping. He blames the levels on high-altitude training, including training at Spring Gulch, above Carbondale, which he said is still his favorite place to train. But the levels kept him from keeping up his training in the days leading up to his races.

“It was more than frustrating,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong. This was the first time an Ethiopian athlete was going to the Winter Olympics. It was a huge honor.”

He came in almost 10 minutes behind the top finisher in the men’s 15k, a disappointing finish after a disappointing few days.

His personal goal is to shrink that margin. And since making Ethiopia his home base, he said, representing his home country means even more.

“It’s been my goal. It’s been my dream,” he said.

Still, will the world take seriously a cross-country skier from a desert country with no real hope for a medal?

“I am concerned that people will not take him seriously,” said Clark, his CRMS coach. “In the past four, five, six Olympics, there have been skiers from non-traditional winter sports countries that have entered the cross-country discipline. Have they been great skiers? No. Have they been as great as Robel is technically? No, they haven’t been.

“But on the other hand, they didn’t get there simply because somebody gave them a ticket. … I don’t take lightly nor do I dismiss any participant as insignificant if they end up at the start line. Robel is definitely that sort of person.”

He’s picked up sponsorships from Club Med, and from Panasonic, which has included Teklemariam in its One Winter, Five Dreams program, recognizing winter athletes who overcame adversity to compete in the Games.

“They may not be ‘star’ athletes,” its Web site says, “but like every Olympian, they have an amazing story to tell.”

dfrey@aspendailynews.com

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