Quitting never an option for Chinese Taipei Alpine skier Lee Wen-Yi

BEIJING - For most Alpine skiers, falling down and missing a gate during an Olympic slalom race usually means an abrupt end to the race. But for Lee Wen-Yi, it's a different story.

Lee, Chinese Taipei's first female Alpine skier in a Winter Olympics, started in Run 1 as the last among the 88 competitors during Wednesday's women's slalom event at Beijing 2022.

Unfortunately, she fell down and missed the third pole. Without a hesitation, Lee struggled to stand up and trudged back in her skis, step by step.

"I thought to myself: is my Olympics going to end like this? At the third pole in the first run?" 19-year-old Lee recalled.

"No!"

Leaving a trail of ski prints on the snow, Lee climbed back to the red pole that has been left out, drawing cheers from the crowds at the starting line. Then she continued her race and finished the last in one minute 36.49 seconds, nearly 25 seconds behind her nearest rival.

"People were cheering for me on my way to hike back up. I felt so touched," she said.

Lee Yung-Te said his daughter Wen-Yi had been a little nervous and skied too fast at the beginning, while the snow condition was not good after over 80 skiers had skied down the course.

According to the rules, athletes who miss the "gates" can climb back and continue the race, but all the time it takes will be counted in the final placing. Those who aim for Olympic medals normally give up in a situation like this.

For Lee, what really matters is not winning a medal, but finishing every race.

She completed her second run smoothly and improved on with a time of 1:09:55, but it's not enough to lift her out of the bottom among the 50 skiers who completed two runs.

"It is always my dream to take part in the Olympic Games," Lee, laughing and joking, said in an interview.

Lee's Olympic journey was way longer than the two hours and 46 minutes in the competition at the National Alpine Skiing Center in Beijing, as she began to ski with her father when she was four years old.

Lee had been active in multiple international competitions since she turned 16 years old. In order to qualify for the 2022 Winter Games, she and her father flew to Europe and participated in 25 races in 37 days, traveling more than 5,500km to vie for qualification for the Olympics.

"We were either skiing in the game or traveling on the road. It was a hard time," Lee recalled, who took a leave of absence in her first year at college for the Olympics.

"I drove her all the way to the matches. She has a dream. As a parent, the only thing I could do is to support her," Lee Yung-te said.

In the non-stop tour since last December, Lee finally managed to secure an Olympic quota just five days before the deadline.

Lee often writes diaries on social media, documenting the journey prior to the Winter Olympics which saw her travel across Switzerland, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia.

"I have been working so hard for this moment," Lee said. "I need to finish the race. It was the goal I set for myself."

"Wanting to finish at all costs despite the fact that you already have no chance for the medals," one media commented. "That's the Olympic spirit."