Beyond the podium

By MIKE LYNCH, Adirondack Daily Enterprise

The 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games and the aura it created in this region inspired a whole generation of U.S. Olympic athletes from the Adirondacks, including gold-medalist Billy Demong of Vermontville and biathlete Tim Burke. But it also helped inspire Ethiopia's first Winter Olympian - cross-country skier Robel Teklemariam.
Teklemariam recently completed his second Winter Olympics as the sole representative from the African country not known for its snow.

Born in Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia, Teklemariam moved with his family to New York City in the mid-1980s when he was 9. At the time, his mother worked for the United Nations. Unhappy with public schools in the city, Teklemariam started attending boarding school at North Country School in Lake Placid in 1986. He had attended and enjoyed Camp Treetops at NCS the two previous summers.

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