The skier qualified in slalom and giant slalom, Timorese Youth Ambassador, will keep his goal in Beijing : highlight the small emerging ski nations
DILI, EAST TIMOR, January 25, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — As the world’s ski elite is taking part in the last competitions before the big departure for the Olympics of Beijing 2022, other skiers with different profiles and backgrounds are also preparing for this very special event!This special category of athletes strive not only to perform, but also have an important parallel mission: to proudly fly the flag of the country they represent, as well as respect their dual nationality – wearing the colors of their roots and family history. These athletes will go with an additional message: that of hope and peace aiming show the populations they represent that they are not forgotten on the world stage. They bear the message that through sport, with determination, passion and perseverance, small miracles can happen.
The skier Yohan Goutt Goncalves, aged 27, who has a French father and Timorese mother, is going to Beijing and proudly assumes his role as ambassador of the long oppressed population of Timor Leste (TLS).
Yohan has qualified for his third consecutive Winter Olympics and for the first time in both the slalom and giant slalom events. Since the beginning of this adventure, he has been working hard for his second country. Timor Leste is a small island in South Asia located between Indonesia and Australia which was colonized until 2022 and is one of the poorest countries in the world…
Yohan who discovered skiing at age two -due to his French origins -has dreamt of representing his mother’s country at the Winter Olympics since he was 8 years old. He takes his role of representing Timor Leste to heart. So much so that he was named “Timorese Youth Ambassador” after the Sochi 2014 Olympics. His commitment has its roots in his own family history: his mother grew up under the terror of war in Timor and his uncle fought to give the country its independence.
Since 2014, Yohan Goutt Goncalves, a skier from this small exotic island that has never seen snow, has participated in two winter Olympic Games- but the journey to get there has clearly not been easy! To achieve his goal, he has had to create and develop the Timor Leste Ski Federation, finding the necessary financial and human resources to ensure training and participation in competitions to qualify for the Olympics, organizing numerous trips to participate in competitions, and all this at the same time as working! He and his federation have worked hard -organizing FIS races/championships, working to find sponsors, finding the funding to afford a coach (he is trained by the former Romanian skier Gligor Bogdan)- all this on an extremely limited budget…
If the Timorese skier, as for the other “small nations” of the Federation Internationale de Ski with its new President Johan Eliasch, encounters difficulties through the practice of his sport, he has never given up nor lost his goal to highlight and work for their recognition.
Although his nation represents one of the lowest budgets of the FIS, he and his Federation have gained experience throughout the last Olympics. Despite having only one athlete and a very small team, Timor Leste has been a very active member of the “small nations” of the FIS. So active that other small emerging nations of the circuit contact them for advice and support!
Even though he knows that he has pretty any chance of getting on the podium, Yohan can be proud to represent the spirit of the Olympics pioneered by Pierre de Coubertin and keep its legacy and magic alive!
Less than 10 days before the Olympic Games, and despite the difficulty of actually making it to the games – due to the increased complications of the covid pandemic – it is certain that Yohan Goutt Goncalves will go to Beijing with stars in his eyes, determined to show Timor Leste to the rest of the world, hoping to create vocations and inspire future generations of athletes.
