Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe is already one of the most interesting Olympians of all time. A skier. A photographer. A pop singer. A German prince who races for Mexico.
The 58-year-old wants to become the oldest Winter Olympian ever in PyeongChang.
“I’m trying hard to qualify,” Hohenlohe said in an Olympic Channel interview. “If I’m there, it would be amazing. If I’m not there, I tried hard to fulfill my dream to be the oldest, and beat the guy that was a curling guy from Sweden, I read.”
In Sochi, Hohenlohe raced at his sixth Olympics, 30 years after his Olympic debut in Sarajevo. Wearing a mariachi-themed suit, he fell in his first slalom run and did not finish.
Still, he became the second-oldest Winter Olympian ever behind Carl August Kronlund, a Swedish curler who earned a silver medal at the 1924 Chamonix Winter Games (the first Winter Olympics) at age 58.
Hohenlohe is able to compete in the Olympics due to the easy (relative to other sports) qualification process for Alpine skiing, especially in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
An otherwise unqualified nation can enter one male and one female Alpine skier in the Olympics who meet a low threshold of international standing. Because of this, more than 70 nations entered Alpine skiers at the 2014 Olympics.
Von Hohenlohe last completed a World Cup race in 2006. He didn’t finish either of his starts in the giant slalom and slalom at the world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, last weekend.
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