TURIN, Italy -- Prince Albert II, the ruler of Monaco, watched the tiny principality's bobsled team speed down the Olympic track and, according to friends, likely had one thought: It could have been me.

Although he oversees a Riviera principality, Albert has been a mainstay at the Winter Games, racing in Monaco's four-man bobsled in five Olympics _ from Calgary in 1988 to Salt Lake City in 2002.

An athlete whose sports range from skiing to swimming, windsurfing to judo, the son of Prince Rainier and the American actress Grace Kelly would have preferred to be sliding along at the Turin Games on Sunday.

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