Asa Miller before the start of the men’s giant slalom event of the Beijing Winter Olympics. | Photo from POC Media Bureau.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippines’ lone athlete in the Winter Olympics, Asa Miller came up short in the men’s giant slalom event on Sunday, February 13 at the National Alpine Skiing Center in Xiaohaituo Mountain, China.
The 21-year-old Filipino-American crashed out of the competition just 20 seconds into his first run and failed to make it to the top 50, his modest goal in his second Winter Olympics competition.
Miller earlier revealed that he’s aiming to break into the top 50 after he debuted in 2018 at 70th place in Pyeongchang, Korea.
However, bad weather contributed to Miller’s slump along with 32 other competitors who listed DNF or did not finish after heavy snowfall that resulted in poor visibility on the course.
A total of 89 skiers were on the starting list, but only 54 advanced to the second round.
“It’s certainly a bummer and as the course got skied out. It’s not good on the upper pitch. I feel bum for him but he had an excellent warm-up this morning,” said Miller’s American coach Will Gregorak.
So frustrated with his DNF that Miller rushed back to the Olympic Village with his father, Kelly.
“Asa didn’t want to ski just to finish, he wants to ski lay down and run. The hard part about this hill is that it comes out as you ride and it gets very slick,” said Gregorak.
Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt recovered from an early mistake to take the lead after the first run with a time of one minute and 2.92 seconds over the course that has a vertical drop of 424 meters.
Stefan Brennsteiner of Austria was 0.04 seconds behind in second and world champion Mathieu Faivre of France was 0.08 behind in third.
Nevertheless, everyone in the Philippine delegation were still proud of Miller’s effort despite the mishap.
“It’s part of alpine skiing. But he still has the slalom on Wednesday,” said Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino from Tagaytay City.
Gregorak is also very proud of Miller saying that anything can happen in the sport of skiing.
“I’m still proud of him, he still put out the work. Like I said, he didn’t go out [only] to finish. That’s the nature of the sport, that’s what could happen,” added Gregorak.
Miller still has a chance to show his skiing prowess and represent the Philippines for his second event, the men’s slalom on Wednesday, at 10:00 AM.
“Asa wants to put his head into slalom mode. He’ll take today and let the frustration out and then tomorrow we will go back to slalom,” said Gregorak.
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