The Times has a piece today on Marino Cardelli, the only olympic athlete from San Marino and an industrial design student who's teachers are no doubt waiting for his return. Here's a taste:

Cardelli is part of the breed sometimes derisively referred to as "Olympic tourist," one of those who alone carry the flag, literally and figuratively, of a country. But a lot of those are different. They are older athletes who seem to see the Olympics as part of a to-do list. Often they do not live in the country they represent, or were not born there.

That is not Cardelli.

"I am a typical boy of San Marino," he said. His parents, Angelo and Cristina, are teachers. They used to take Cardelli and his older brother, Tommaso, skiing in Italy. Olympians with no chance of winning--or even a small chance of finishing--are a longstanding tradition at the Olympics, in an effort to spread their reach. The 1988 Calgary Games, a sort of tourism zenith, featured two of the better known: the Jamaican bobsled team and Eddie Edwards, the British ski jumper known as Eddie the Eagle.

And the payoff...

Cardelli is in college, studying industrial design. He wants to create everyday objects, especially with environmentally friendly, reusable elements. He was supposed to start this session on Feb. 8 abroad in Lisbon. He instead flew to Vancouver on Feb. 9 to participate in the opening ceremony. He is far behind in school, and will return before the closing ceremony.

"I am happy, but the teacher, no," he said Sunday. "This is an experience of life."

Read the whole piece here.