A new name may have been added to the list of plucky but noncompetitive winter sportsmen — a ledger that includes Eddie the Eagle (Michael Edwards) and the 1988 Jamaican Olympic bobsled team — after Adrian Solano wobbled his way onto and then around the course this week at the Nordic world ski championships in Lahti, Finland. Commentators who witnessed his every fall there quickly called him the “world’s worst skier ever.”

To anyone aware of his back story, however, the reason behind his shakiness was understandable: Until arriving at the competition this week, Solano, a Venezuelan, had never set foot on, nor even seen, snow. Until his debut, Solano, 22, carried out all his training for the championships on wheels under the blazing South American sun.

In his opening event, the cross-country 10-kilometer in a qualifying round on Wednesday, Solano wore Bib No. 1 and was first out of the gate. He lost his balance almost immediately, proceeding to fall on the descents and to perform variations of the splits on the inclines, persistently losing his footing.