Singaporean Winter Olympics athlete trained on in-line skates ahead of giant slalom debut
Switzerland-based Faiz Basha found a lack of snow when he returned to Singapore for military service, so he needed to improvise
Singaporean Faiz Basha is the first competitor to represent his country in a snow sport at the Olympic Winter Games and his road to the frozen slopes from his tropical nation included unconventional training on in-line skates.
Basha moved at the age of three to Switzerland, where his parents worked as diplomats, and learned to ski from his Singaporean mother, who fell for the sport with her new proximity to the Alps.
“We were learning about things as we go along because we don’t have the culture, we don’t have the history in the sport,” he said.
Singapore’s only previous appearance at the Winter Olympics was in 2018 in Pyeongchang, where short track speed skater Cheyenne Goh finished 28th in the women’s 1,500m.
For Basha, living in Switzerland meant skiing during school gym classes and he soon earned himself a reputation for being “reckless” and “unhinged” in his skiing, leading his coaches to recommend that he channel more of that energy into races.
