“An Olympic Memoir. The Daring Tale of How One Man Took His Country to the Olympics” is a middle-grade memoir chronicling Roberto Carcelen’s remarkable rise from wobbly newbie on the cross-country ski trail to Peru’s first winter Olympian. It’s a story of how one dogged amateur tackled the impossible: How could a totally unknown nobody persuades the Olympic committee to let him represent his country? How was an inexperienced rookie going to transform himself into a professional skier in record time and transform the story of a country? How could a skier perpetually paralyzed by fear of downhills; other competitors laugh and being the oldest xc skiing athlete ever score well enough to even qualify? And what does it mean when winning isn’t the goal?

Roberto Carcelen’s odyssey to the winter Olympics is a contrary mix of grit, terror, drama, determination, and strategy. Readers experience firsthand the doubts, uncertainties, suspense and self-imposed rigors of testing an idea. In the style of Holling C. Holling’s classics the adventure unfolds through wrap-around illustrations/notations of the minutiae and majesty of one of the world’s most watched athletic events—everything from the mechanics of the equipment to types of snow, maps of the qualifying races, architectural drawings of eco-green Olympic Village.
Millions around the world felt inspired by Roberto's story. From Sports Illustrated to the New York Times. Here is Roberto's story told by media.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/olympics-peruvian-skier-celebrates-last-place-n30866
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/sports/othersports/03olympics.html
http://komonews.com/sports/rio-games-2016/he-placed-last-at-the-olympics-but-won-at-life
https://www.geekwire.com/2015/the-roberto-carcelen-story-how-two-broken-ribs-helped-an-olympian-launch-a-coding-school-in-peru/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUuipifgyEs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jclpqr0aKRk

Roberto's children book is out!