The Winter Youth Olympic Games kick off in South Korea today, running until 1st February and making renewed use of some of the venues from the 2018 Winter Olympics. It’s the fourth Youth Winter Games and the first to be staged in Asia.
Among the young competitors from around the world who are now in South Korea for the Games, 25 athletes representing Brazil (7), Thailand (6), Mongolia (4), Tunisia (3), Jamaica (1), Singapore (1), Kenya (1), Chinese Taipei (1), and Columbia (1) have qualified from the PLF New Horizons Academy, designed to encourage participants from outside the usual winter sports nations.
They include Issa Laborde, a young Kenyan skier who specialises in slalom and giant slalom and has his sights set on the 2026 Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy after Gangwon 2024.
Although Kenyan, 16-year-old Laborde was born in Alpe d’Huez, the son of a ski patroller, and has spent most of his life on skis on his feet.
With a Kenyan Mum, Laborde first represented Kenya in 2022, participating at the La Scara race in Val d’Isère in the U16 category.
“It was a beautiful experience, the performance wasn’t that good but I managed to express myself and to have good sensations. It was truly a good experience,” Laborde told Olympics.com
Last February 2023 Laborde and his family met the Kenyan delegation at the 2023 Alpine skiing world Championships in Meribel/Courchevel, which included Sabrina Simader, now 25-years-old but the only Kenyan athlete to have competed at the Winter Youth Olympic Games up to now, entering as a 17 year old at Lillehammer 2016, before competing in alpine disciplines at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in 2018.
Then later last year Laborde was selected as part of a group of aspiring Olympians who attended a two-week summer camp in Korea Republic to prepare for the winter season. It was also his first major trip away from home without his parents.
“Gangwon 2024 is my goal, I’m still young. I want first to test myself at a higher level and then we’ll see depending on my progression but I hope to go as high as possible,” Laborde told Olympics.com, adding, “It’s rare, so it brings something special. It’s beautiful to bring Africa in a sport where Africa doesn’t belong usually. I hope that it’s the beginning of something. Maybe one day Africa will be represented in the World Cup and manage to have successes.”
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