The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina added to the annals of the ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat, and the feet.
Much of the “agony” for viewers revolved around the ungrateful antics of the competitors who weren’t keen to represent their country – U.S. halfpipe skier Hunter Hess comes to mind. The specter of Canadian cheating clouded the curling cauldron. At least they were Canadian; sometimes it was hard to decipher an athlete’s patriotic provenance. They seem to switch national allegiances willy-nilly.
Cheating wasn’t the sole province of the competitors – judges got in on it, too. However, they always have the fallback excuse that the event being scored is “subjective,” as with the French Ice Dancing judge.
In short, the games provided many talking points. The heroic exploits of our men’s and women’s hockey teams will reverberate, but quite possibly the most heartwarming moment of all was provided by a four-legged interloper.
Skis? Nazgul don’t need no stinkin’ skis. He’s a wolfdog who wanted to stretch his legs on the cross-country ski trails in Northern Italy, despite female Olympians getting in his way. But why go to the bother of enduring the whole course? Wise Nazgul (or Nazghul) entered at the homestretch, crossing the finish line to rapturous applause.
Few will remember the names of the humans, but Nazgul will go down in cross-country skiing lore. Even Greece’s Konstantina Charalampidou, a highly trained human competitor, admitted that “I became famous with a dog that came across the finish line, and everyone wants to interview me now.”
Someone else who may be forgettable (though deserves some credit for trying, and for daring to enter the cold cauldron) is Iranian skier Samaneh Beyrami Baher. She admirably competed in another cross-country skiing event, though she finished a lowly 98th. Hats off for trying, but one wonders: on another day, had the escape artist Nazgul been chasing from behind, would that have added extra motivation to push her endurance even further? A giant hound charging from behind would have put the willies up her.
Why would Nazgul chase Sameneh? Though she may be an exception, Nazgul may not take kindly to her compatriots. After all, dog walking is banned in many Iranian locales, and as we now know, Nazgul is the K-9 version of Chariots of Ice.
If his humans are business-oriented, there are opportunities here. Nazgul ski suits, anybody?
