The above was a paragraph heading in the Diplomatica column of The Ottawa Citizen, February 8th, bringing attention once again to the skiing prowess of Estonian chargé d’affaires Argo Küünemäe.

The weekend of Feb. 4-5 saw Ottawa’s diplomatic corps participate in the annual European Union Ski Fiesta, held at Camp Fortune. This year’s event attracted some 140 participants.

Jennifer Campbell wrote in her column that “the smallest Embassy in Ottawa distinguished itself on the weekend by taking two titles” at the event. The Embassy of Estonia, with only a single diplomat, took first place in the team event with the entry of Küünemäe and his assistant Käti Kangro Hallik. Kangro-Hallik also won honours for being the top female diplomat; her husband Margus Hallik finished first among the male competitors. (His finish evidently did not count in Campbell’s diplomatic rankings.)

Second prize in the team competition went to a joint federal government and Italian Embassy entry called Loken-Cortese, the team from the Swedish Embassy placed third.

Küünemäe shrugged off the accolades with diplomatic reserve. “There’s a lot of snow in Estonia” he told Campbell. “We are a Nordic country. Skiing is very popular.”

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