François Riverdale
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François Riverdale is an athlete who was part of Ariddia’s delegation to the first Winter Olympic Games.
Ariddia, a country comprising nineteen islands in the Pacific Ocean, has a flat terrain, a semi-tropical climate, and is for the most part covered in forests. There are no mountains, and few significant hills. For that reason, Ariddia relied heavily on the fields of short track and speedskating at the first Winter Olympics, and indeed won six of its seven medals in those fields.
The surprise seventh medal came from Riverdale, a biathlete. Born in the town of Reugère, he had sometimes joked that being one of Ariddia's top biathletes was nothing much to boast about. Few people expected his achievements in the Games to be anything more than symbolic, least of all himself. So when he logged a time of 36:06.0 in the Men's 12.5 km Pursuit, and took bronze, his performance was watched with astonishment and delight by his supporters.
Riverdale became a symbol of the succesful underdog, an athlete from a Third World, semi-tropical country who had performed amazingly.
He has not yet announced whether or not he would like to take part in further Olympic competitions.
