He’s got a world gold medal for his work, but Abel Ramirez Aguilar already knows he won’t win the snow sculpting competition at the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
The Mexico City artist learned Friday afternoon from carnival officials he was ineligible to compete in the sculpting contest because he doesn’t live in Minnesota. The winner of the competition, which started Friday, advances to the national competition in Lake Geneva, Wis.
Winterfest Inc., the governing body that sets the regulations for the state competition, requires contestants to be state residents. Application materials state the rule.
“It was an oversight on both the carnival’s part and the carver’s part,” carnival spokeswoman Mary Huss said. “We didn’t think about it; we were just so excited to have him come.”
But Aguilar, a professional sculptor, could have had a chance to compete for top honors. According to the bylaws, team captains can make exceptions for a contestant with a unanimous vote. All but one of the teams felt Aguilar should be able to compete, Huss said.
He learned of the carnival competition through longtime friend Carlos Lopez of Lakeville. Aguilar’s only experience in carving snow and ice has come from contests away from home – such as one in Albertville, France, where he won a gold medal for an ice sculpture at the 1992 Winter Olympics, he said.
Aguilar said of his ineligibility in Minnesota: “I understand. It is a local competition and (whoever wins) goes to represent Minnesota” at nationals.
The ruling has not stopped him from shaping an 8-foot snow cube into his next masterpiece: storms of wind and rain that produce a woman, representing “life, and spring, and good weather,” he said.
He’s still eligible for the individual ice-carving competition today, which has no residency rules.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press.
