The mercury oozed over 30 degrees Celsius in Port-au-Prince this week, more than 8,000 miles from where 19-year-old Haitian skier Richardson Viano is preparing to make his unlikely Winter Olympics debut.
Viano hopes his appearance in the men’s giant slalom in Beijing will help change the perception of a country routinely regarded as the poorest in the western hemisphere, and provide inspiration for children back home.
