Most athletes competing in the Winter Olympics come from cold-weather countries. But there are some notable exceptions involving Asia — especially when it comes to skiing.
Faiz Basha is the first skier to represent Singapore in the Winter Olympics.
His usual training routine at home: roller skates. And ski poles — on a course around Singapore's National Stadium, laid out with plastic traffic cones.
He does have a cold-weather backstory — he grew up in Switzerland and raced competitively from a young age.
Elsewhere in the tropics of Southeast Asia, Malaysia has a single team member at the Winter Olympics. She's also a skier.
Aruwin Salehhuddin is back for her second Winter Olympics. She also grew up in a colder climate than her home country — she learned to ski as a kid in Bellingham, Washington.
Alpine skiing is one of the two sports where India is fielding an Olympic competitor this year — the other is cross-country skiing.
Making history from yet another warm-weather Asia spot is Tallulah Proulx. She's not only the first woman to ski for the Olympic team of the Philippines — she will be the first Filipina to compete in a Winter Olympics, building on a background that included childhood skiing in Tahoe, California.
Singaporean Faiz Basha seems to speak for many when he says, “Maybe I come from a tropical island, but so what? You work with what you have.”
