A skier who had never even touched snow before an event has been dubbed Venezuela's Eddie the Eagle after a hilariously bad showing at the world ski championships in Finland.
Having only ever trained on wheels, Adrian Solano predictably finished dead last in the 154-man competition, and was involved in many a comic moment during his run.
He was wobbly coming out of the blocks in the cross-country event, and followed that up with an amusing sequence of events in which he fell over coming down a hill and took an age to climb another.
He then collapsed coming down another steep incline before taking an astonishingly long time to get his bearings as others whizzed past him. Other moments saw him simply standing forlornly on the side of the track as he was overtaken.
His awful performance at the championship compounded the troubles he had faced earlier in the week, when French airport officials deported him while he was en route to Sweden to train on snow.
They believed he was attempting to flee Venezuela, and sent him back to his home country. He was forced to start a GoFundMe campaign just to get to Finland in time for the competition, a feat he only just achieved.
But Solano was unfazed upon finishing his run, telling an interviewer that he had "achieved a dream".
"This pushes me to try more every day," he said. "From here to the Olympics!"
Newshub.
