Bermuda's first cross country skier in the Winter Olympics, Tucker Murphy, will realise his dream this afternoon when he competes in the 15 Kilometre race at Whistler.

Murphy, who carried the flag in the Opening Ceremony on Friday night showing off red Bermuda shorts, has been out on the course every day, sometimes twice a day, since arriving in Vancouver a week ago.

And early yesterday morning he was back out testing the conditions.

His father, Michael who is also his manager, said yesterday that the Bermuda team were "flying by the seat of our pants" at these Olympics.

While all the best skiers at the Games are virtually professional, Murphy can be considered one of the few amateurs.

"The skiers from countries like Norway and Finland (and other top countries) are in the Army, Police or Customs and that is all they do," said Michael Murphy.

"Many of them have 50 pairs of skis each and their team of waxers."

Murphy meanwhile has two pairs of skis but has managed to get a waxer volunteer to help out. "The waxers are fairly secret about what they are doing but having said that they have all been helpful to us," said Michael Murphy. "We have befriended some of them."

And the waxing on the skis is very important in this race. "We have had a ton of snow but it has also been raining every day so the waxing is extremely important," said Murphy.

Today's race will be split into two groups. The first group is comprised of skiers from developing nations like Bermuda.

Murphy explained: "There will be about 18 skiers in our group from countries like Ethiopia, Peru, Mongolia, Nepal, South Africa, Algeria, Turkey, Ireland, Portugal, Armenia and Brazil. These skiers have not had much funding from their countries and don't have the support that the skiers from Norway and Finland get. They have been on the circuit for three years trying to qualify."

Bermuda's Murphy, who is also a Rhodes Scholar, qualified nearly a year ago but his father said since then he has improved a lot.

"Qualifying is on a points system and you had to get under 300 points to qualify for the Olympics," he said. "Tucker got 294 to qualify a year ago but he is now at 220 points so that is how much he has improved."

After the first group of 18 skiers go off on 15 second intervals, the second group of skiers expected to number 37 will then go.

Since Bermuda's team are staying at Whistler they have been reminded about the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a training run on Friday before the Opening Ceremony.

Murphy said: "Everyone wore black armbands (that day). It was very sad to see what happened. Luge is a dangerous sport "

Former luger Patrick Singleton, who inspected part of the track a few months ago, said he didn't feel it was adequately tested.

"I just don't think there were enough training runs allowed in advance of this competition to properly check the track and allow athletes time to get used to it.

"I can't imagine what some of those athletes must be thinking.

"There will be some who are able to shut it out of their minds and compete, but there will be others for whom this will have terrible consequences."

On a happier note, Michael Murphy said the Bermuda team all enjoyed the Opening Ceremony on Friday night despite taking about three hours to get back to their Village at Whistler.

"It was a beautiful ceremony and reflected Canada very well," he said adding that he was sad to see that Bermuda skeleton slider Singleton didn't qualify in the end.

While Murphy will be the only Bermudian flying the flag at the Olympics, the Island does have another Bermudian in the Games although she is representing France.

Vanessa James and partner Yannick Bonheur were the first black pairs competitors in Olympic history when they skated their short programme last night. They finish with the long programme tonight.

James, who has Bermuda nationality and attended Mount St. Agnes until she was 10-years-old, has skated previously for Great Britain before finding Bonheur on the internet site icepartnersearch.com. They won the French national championships in December and were seventh at the recent European Championships.