A young Filipina skier made a breakthrough for the Philippines as she became the first Filipina to qualify for the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG).
The 16-year-old Ana Noelle Wahleithner qualified after she accumulated points in various International Federation of Skiing (FIS) sanctioned races this year.
Ana is currently in Switzerland for her two weeks of training.
She will be back in North America after for races leading to 2020 Lausanne in January, according to the post of Philippine Athletes at Multi-Sport Event.
Ana, who is both a Philippine and American citizen, will be competing for the Alpine Skiing sport.
Meanwhile, another Filipino is also competing for the said Olympic sporting event.
The 14-year-old New York-based skater Julian Macaraeg also earned a YOG berth at the ISU Junior World Short Track Championships in Montreal, Canada.
His coach confirmed that Macaraeg met the 42-seconds qualifying time in the 500 meters.
The Winter YOG is a multi-sport competition for young elite athletes from around the world between 15 and 18 years old with an equal number of male and female athletes.
The competition will be held for 13 days. There will be 1,880 athletes who will be competing in eight sports across 16 disciplines in 81 medal events.
The last time the Philippines was represented in this competition was in the 2012 games with alpine skier Abel Tesfamariam and the country’s Prince of Ice Michael Martinez.
