SNOW is nearly as common as sweltering summer sunshine in Spain, thanks to the huge expanse of high-altitude areas inland in what is the second-most mountainous country in Europe after Switzerland – so sending candidates for the Winter Olympics is not as unusual as occasional tourists might think: Some of the continent's best, and comparatively cheapest, ski resorts are based in Spain, and northern and landlocked provinces regularly see minus figures on the thermometer in winter.
Snow-boarder Queralt Castellet is off to her fifth Winter Olympics - will she be in the medals this time?
So it's not quite as bizarre-sounding as a Jamaican bobsleigh team, whose real-life Olympic début in 1988 inspired the Disney film Cool Runnings; and who got the last laugh in the end as the Caribbean island has fielded a two-man entry in six games since 1992, with a women's squad starting at the most recent one in 2018.
They'll be back this year, too, with a mixed team of 10, and hopefully won't have to crowdfund their entry like they did for Sochi, which the Dogecoin cryptocurrency community started by amassing three-quarters of the cash for them in two days flat.
Spain's snowy track record
Although Spain is a regular at these icy games, the nation went a whole 26 years without bringing home a single medal until the Pyeongchang (South Korea) Olympics in 2018.
Back then, 'super-skater' Javier Fernández, who had already netted six consecutive European Championships, two world titles and an Olympic diploma from Sochi 2014, was only missing a medal from the most-televised global sporting event and was tipped for a gold.
He earned a bronze, and 'boardercross' snow-boarder Regino Hernández joined Javier in making history with another bronze, but both have now retired from their sports, meaning those remaining of their generation of winter whizzkids, and the freshest faces on the block, will be feeling the pressure more than ever at Peking 2022.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com