Thailand first joined Olympic competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, and excepting the boycotted 1980 Summer Olympics they have participated in every Summer Olympics since.[1][2] The nation's only prior participation at the Winter Olympics had come four years prior in the Salt Lake City Olympics.[1] The Thai delegation to Turin consisted of a single athlete, cross-county skier Prawat Nagvajara.[3] He had previously been the country's only representative in Salt Lake City.[4] Nagvajara was the flag bearer for the opening ceremony,[5] while a volunteer carried the Thai flag for the closing ceremony.[6]
Prawat Nagvajara, Thailand's lone competitor in Turin, was 47 years old at the time of these Olympics.[7] On 17 February, he finished the men's 15 km classical in a time of 1 hour 7 minutes and 15 seconds.[8] This made him the last of 96 men who finished the race, and he was 29 minutes behind the gold medalist, Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia.[9]