Singapore ski racer Faiz Basha becomes 2nd athlete to represent tropical nation at a Winter Games
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BORMIO, Italy (AP) — The reaction is usually the same when Faiz Basha tells anyone that he’s an Olympian.
What sport? Ski racing. An understanding nod.
What country? Singapore. Raised eyebrows.
Basha’s just the second athlete from the tropical country — temperature today: 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius) — to compete at a Winter Games. Born in Singapore, Basha was introduced to ski racing during his time living in Switzerland, when his parents moved there while his dad served as a diplomat.
His route here, to the Milan Cortina Games, has been in some ways quite conventional to every other ski racer (he grew up going to the mountains). In other ways, not so much (he honed his technique inline skating while serving in the military).
“Being a Singaporean in a sport where you don’t really see anyone else from tropical countries, it brings with me a lot of pride to carry the flag at such big events,” said Basha, who will compete in the slalom Monday to close out the men’s Alpine program in Bormio. “I’ve been quite lucky to have the opportunity.”
He’s one of several athletes from nontraditional ski nations getting a chance to represent their country. Like Eritrea’s Shannon Abeda, who finished 31.30 seconds behind giant slalom champion Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil on Saturday.
Time didn’t really matter. Pride did.
“My friend and I were in the stands looking over, and he asked me a question, and I just started bawling,” Abeda said. “He was asking me how much it took to get here. It means a lot.”
Same for Nathan Tchibozo, who represents Benin in West Africa.
“This shows that everything is possible,” said Tchibozo, who finished the GS in 48th place. “You have to believe in your dreams.”
How it all started for Basha
When Basha’s family moved to Geneva, his mom, who worked at a bank in Geneva, decided she wanted to learn how to ski. He went along, too.
Mountains. Switzerland. He was hooked early — and highly competitive.
“I didn’t like losing” as a kid, said Basha, whose full name is Faiz Basha Munwar Basha. “Whenever I had a bad race, I would be crying. I was really young. But I got in more and more training and just kept improving.”
To the point where he competed at world championships in Austria last winter and now in Bormio. He joins short track speedskater Cheyenne Goh as athletes representing Singapore who’ve competed at a Winter Games. Goh was 28th in the women’s 1,500 at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Basha’s first Olympic race
The official result of his first Olympic run in Bormio, the giant slalom, goes down as a “DNF” — did not finish — after a crash. It happened to be a crash, years ago as a teenager, that nearly ended his ski racing. He was competing in a super-G when he wiped out and ripped a hole in his intestine.
As much as the physical pain were the emotional scars. He suddenly knew fear.
“My first training after the crash, which was like many months later, it was quite difficult because I did the first run and I crashed. I did the second run and I crashed again. I did a third run and I crashed,” recalled Basha, who turns 24 on Feb. 28. “I went to my mom and I dropped my skis. I said, ‘I’m done. I don’t want to do this anymore.’”
So he took up redrawing the mass transit map for Singapore. You know, as a side project.
MRT mass transit
He found the underground railway network — Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system — hard to read. The transport system covers 150 miles (240 kilometers) of the island with more than 160 stations.
While taking a break from studying, he mapped out a new grid. His version of the map went viral. He was even offered an internship by the transportation department to work on some other cartography projects.
“I did this during my period where I wasn’t being very sportive,” explained Basha, who’s a mechanical engineering student at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. “I was still quite scared of taking speed (on the race course). Shortly after, I started to get back into racing and skiing with intention.”
Military service
After graduating from the International School of Geneva, he would return to Singapore and fulfill two years of military service.
With no mountains around, he had to improvise. When he had time, Basha would go to a local promenade, set up cones and slalom through them on inline skates.
It improved his footwork, balance and form.
“If you think about how inline skates work, you have the wheels in a line and you can’t drift,” said Basha. “It helped me develop a very skiing-on-rails sort of mindset. When I came back to the skis after my national service, I actually improved.”
“I know I’m still a long way from the top of the sport. For me, success is being able to break new ground for Singapore,” Basha added. “I’m quite content with what I’ve done so far.”
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics