Skier Issa Laborde eyes better tidings at Winter Youth Olympics
Kenya’s France-based Issa Laborde cruises down the hill in a past skiing championships. Laborde will compete at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics scheduled from January 19 to February 1 in Gangwon, South Korea.
What you need to know:
- Issa made an impressive debut at the quadrennial competition after finishing 41st from a start list of 65 skiers in Men’s Super-G in Gangwon on Sunday
- Issa, who was born on March 12, 2007 to a French father and a Kenyan mother, slid down the snow-covered Jeongseon High 1 Ski Resort in 58.35sec
- Kenya’s other representative at the quadrennial Games, Ashley Tshanda Ongong’a will compete on January 29 in cross-country skiing
French-born Kenyan alpine skier Issa Gachingiri Laborde Dit Pere hopes to put up a better performance in Men's Giant Slalom on Wednesday after registering mixed results in his first two events at the ongoing Winter Youth Olympic Games in South Korea.
Issa made an impressive debut at the quadrennial competition after finishing 41st from a start list of 65 skiers in Men’s Super-G in Gangwon on Sunday.
Benno Brandis (Germany), Asaja Sturm (Austria) and Andrej Barnas (Slovakia) clinched the medals by finishing the 1,500 metres race in the top-three spots on the Apollo 4 course in 54.42, 54.43 and 54.78 seconds, respectively.
Issa, who was born on March 12, 2007 to a French father and a Kenyan mother, slid down the snow-covered Jeongseon High 1 Ski Resort in 58.35sec. Five skiers did not finish the race, while 11 did not start.
Skiers started the race from an altitude of 1,252m and finished with an altitude of 870m after a vertical drop of 382m.
Issa's second event was the Men’s Alpine Combined on Monday, where he finished in position 46 out of 55 starters in 59.23sec.
He will wrap up his campaign with Men’s Slalom on January 25.
"For my first day in Super-G, I was very happy with my race. I tried to do my best and succeeded," the 16-year-old told Nation Sport on Tuesday morning from Gangwon.
"On my second day it was a bit more difficult than the first day. I did a good first round, but I didn't ski correctly in my second round, so I'm a bit disappointed with that performance. However, I want to do my best tomorrow (Wednesday)," he added.
Kenya’s other representative at the quadrennial Games, Ashley Tshanda Ongong’a will compete on January 29 in cross-country skiing.
Issa and Kenyan-Italian Ongong’a qualified for the Games based on International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) ranking of the Youth Olympic Games quota allocation on December 18, 2023.
Ongong’a is the first African female cross-country skier to qualify and compete at the Winter Youth Games.
In an early interview, Kenya’s first Winter Youth Olympian, Sabrina Wanjiru Simader advised the 16-year-olds Issa and Ashley to believe in themselves in this fourth edition of the Winter Youth Olympics slated for January 19 to February 1.
Austrian-Kenyan Simader herself competed at the second Winter Youth Olympic Games as a 17-year-old in 2016 in Lillehammer in Norway before taking part in alpine disciplines at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in 2018.
“They should have fun and enjoy the moment and know that representing Kenya in the Winter Youth Olympic Games is a privilege. They can be so proud of themselves for making it there, believe in themselves and give their best in their disciplines and just have fun and enjoy it,” added Sabrina.
She also asked the duo to take all the positive experiences from Gangwon “because for me my first Olympic event is an experience I’ll never forget it”.
