This article on Donovan Carrillo in the Los Angeles Times is fascinating, describes the obstacles that Donovan has had to overcome, and if you don't understand why allowing small feds to compete in the Olympics is important after reading this, I don't know what to say.
Excerpt:
The Ice Sport Center, hidden in a corner of the Plaza Mayor mall, is as dark and dank as a coal mine, with a rink less than two-thirds the size of an Olympic-sized surface. Yet twice a day, Carrillo makes the 15-minute drive there from the house he shares in León with Gregorio Núñez, the only coach he has ever known, hooks a breadbox-sized speaker to his cellphone and skates to Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and “Shake It,” the songs he will use in his 2-minute 40-second short program in Beijing. When recreational skaters join him on the soft ice, the rink’s owners make Carrillo turn the music off, leaving him to imagine it in his head.
Excerpt:
The Ice Sport Center, hidden in a corner of the Plaza Mayor mall, is as dark and dank as a coal mine, with a rink less than two-thirds the size of an Olympic-sized surface. Yet twice a day, Carrillo makes the 15-minute drive there from the house he shares in León with Gregorio Núñez, the only coach he has ever known, hooks a breadbox-sized speaker to his cellphone and skates to Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and “Shake It,” the songs he will use in his 2-minute 40-second short program in Beijing. When recreational skaters join him on the soft ice, the rink’s owners make Carrillo turn the music off, leaving him to imagine it in his head.
Defying the odds, a Mexican figure skater will compete in Olympics
Donovan Carrillo, who is the best ice skater in Mexican history and trains at a shopping mall rink, is headed to Beijing. It's taken lots of perseverance.
www.latimes.com