The former business student is presently working as a Snow Park breakfast cook while training at the Snow Farm to prepare for the Winter Games.
Last Saturday, he was excited to win the 7km Merino Muster, which he treated as a pre-games warm-up race.
Baena (22) is the only Venezuelan athlete at the Winter Games.
It is fair to say the tropical country is a minnow in the snow sports world.
There is one main alpine ski resort, at Marida, which has the world's longest cable car ride and reaches 4765m, or the height of Mt Blanc. But steep Marida is not suited for beginner skiers.
Four Nordic skifields exist in South America. The closest is a five-hour flight from where Baena lives.
For Baena, who has also trained in the Czech Republic, the Snow Farm is "the best in the world".
His Olympic ambition formed while volunteering at the Athens Olympics and watching Venezuelan boxers and baseballers.
At the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006, he witnessed the efforts of a Chilean biathlete and decided a Venezuelan really should be on the start line at Vancouver.
So he founded his country's cross-country skiing body, which has set an Olympic qualifying standard of 300 FIS points (by comparison, New Zealand's target is an average of 100 FIS points).
Right from his first steps at age 17, while living in Germany, Baena wanted to ski until 2am.
"People used to say, `You are crazy. Why you ski so much? You are like a kid with new skis'."
Baena's other dream is to be the South American cross-country champion.
"I will work on this from now, so when I retire in the future . . . we [Venezuela] can be better than Argentina and Chile and countries where they do have snow, in 10 years time," Baena said.
However, that great South American showdown might be sooner than he wants.
According to the start list, two dark horses - Brazilian adventure racer Marcio Franco (29) and United States-based Peruvian runner and surfer Roberto Carcelen (39) - are entered in today's 10km freestyle race.
They too are singular men on a singular pursuit.
May the best South American win.
• Send us your ski photos and win:
http://www.odt.co.nz/advert/odt-online/win-ski-shopping-vouchers/68542
