The Mexican apple strudel
Posted on 25/02/2010The first time he competed at a Winter Games, Torvill and Dean were still doing Bolero in Sarajevo. In a record fifth Olympic Games, the eccentric Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg of Mexico is calling it a day. What a shame, writes Ian Chadband in the Daily Telegraph
"I'm a Renaissance Prince in the snows of Canada, so please don't look at my time – just look at my styyyyyle!" implored Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, breaking into half a Barry White impression. So we did and we swooned at the ageless star of these Winter Olympics.At 51 and dolled up in the maddest ski suit this side of Acapulco, garishly painted bandido-style with ammunition belts and guns, we were hardly going to miss the oldest swinger in town, the one-royal Mexico Olympic team, European pop star, art photographer and one-time muse of Andy Warhol.
"No, the main thing was looking good. I won. On artistic impression. Isn't this the coolest suit ever made? The design was my idea. I did it with an Italian designer in Turin; I call it Mexican Desperado."
There was no stopping him. There never has been. Torvill and Dean were still doing Bolero in Sarajevo the first time Prince Hubertus competed at a Winter Games. This is his record fifth and it would have been more had Mexico Olympic chiefs on occasion not taken a stand against being represented by someone who seemed about as Mexican as apple strudel.
He was born and did live in the country for four years when his daddy, Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, was running a Volkswagen plant there and mummy, Her Serene Highness Princess Virginia Carolina Theresa Pancrazia Galdina of Fürstenberg, the Fiat heiress, nipped off to become a B movie star in Europe.
But now jetting between his homes in Vienna, the Italian Alps, the Costa del Sol and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, Hubertus has really become a playboy citizen of the world.
Did I say playboy? Sorry, your highness. "If I were a playboy, I'd be in St Moritz right now, not on this tough little hill fighting it out with the world's best," he scolded.
"I think we provide colour to the Olympics,'' Hubertus said. ''I've had a very, very interesting and unpredictable life. Strength, life and personality only comes out from doing something unexpected so I keep reinventing myself."
Meanwhile, Burnley defender Clarke Carlisle is single-handedly defying the widely-held opinion that footballers don't have two brain cells to rub together. The man who got 10 grade 'A's at GCSE fulfilled a lifetime dream - no, not playing at Wembley in the FA Cup final, but appearing on Countdown, writes Alan Fraser in Daily Mail
Having confronted career-threatening injury, life-endangering alcoholism and Wayne Rooney at the peak of his scoring form — although not all at the same time — you would think Clarke Carlisle might have been more relaxed about appearing on Wednesday’s Countdown.But the Burnley central defender admitted to sweaty hands and a dread of further ribbing from his teammates.
Carlisle is the first Premier League player but not the first professional footballer on Channel 4’s Countdown. Notts County midfielder Neil Mackenzie won eight contests in 2008.
Dictionary corner glowed with admiration. Stelling smiled proudly that a professional footballer had proved capable of using letters other than to text lovers.
We should have expected nothing less. Carlisle gained 10 ‘A’ grade GCEs at school and in 2002 went on to win Britain’s Brainiest Footballer, a programme fronted by no less than former Countdown legend Carol Vorderman.