Arturo Kinch

Arturo Kinch (born 15 April 1956), a facilities project supervisor for Piedmont Airlines, is the athlete who convinced the International Olympic Committee to allow countries with no snow to compete in the Winter Olympic Games. Prior to the 1980 Olympic Games, only countries with winter conditions had participated. Through his efforts, Kinch was able to race at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Games, as the first athlete to do so from a tropical country. His participation predates the Jamaican Bobsled team that was featured in the film, Cool Running. His Olympic performances embraced the original Olympic spirit; he is a true amateur rather than a professional athlete with corporate sponsorship. Additionally, Kinch was the only skier worldwide that competed as both an Alpine and Cross- Country racer. Following Lake Placid in 1980, Kinch also competed at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics 1984, the Calgary Winter Olympics 1988, the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics 2002, and the Torino Winter Olympics 2006. In 1982 he completed the 50 kilometer cross-country race at the Oslo Nordic World Championships and received the keys of Oslo from King Olav V of Norway. Kinch has been one of only three skiers from Costa Rica in Winter Olympic Games history, and is one of the longest Olympic participants in Olympic history.