First black African winter Olympian: Let underdogs have their day

DAKAR: Remember Eric "The Eel" Moussambani, splashing through one of the slowest-ever 100m freestyle heats before a roaring Sydney Olympics crowd after training in an Equatorial Guinea hotel pool?

Or Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, the short-sighted ski jumper from Britain? The Jamaican bobsleigh team of 1988?

For many, the heroic underdogs who finish last embody the Olympic spirit but Lamine Gueye, who was the first winter Olympian from black Africa, fears modern qualification standards are squeezing them off sport's biggest stage.