Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: The Winter Olympics start this week in South Korea. NPR's Melissa Block brings us the story of one athlete who is astonished just to be there. Here's her story. MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE: She's an accidental Olympian. LAURA GOMEZ: My name is Laura Gomez. I'm from Colombia. BLOCK: Colombia - not exactly a hotbed - make that a cold-bed - of ice sports. I bump into Gomez outside at the Athletes Village where flags of the Olympic countries are snapping in a bitter wind. She finds the Colombian flag and smiles. GOMEZ: So I'm super happy, every day. I can't believe it. BLOCK: And if she looks dazed and bewildered... GOMEZ: (Laughter) I'm so confused. BLOCK: ...Well, that makes perfect sense because Gomez only found out she'd be coming to the Olympics a little over one week ago. She says her spot opened up after Russian women speedskaters were banned for doping. So they were out; she was in. GOMEZ: Yeah. That was very exciting. It's
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