{"id":261663,"date":"2026-01-28T10:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T10:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261663\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T10:27:07","slug":"im-doing-this-for-my-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261663\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI’m doing this for my home\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Alex Astridge first clipped into a pair of skis aged three, the Olympics didn\u2019t seem like even a remote possibility. But life has a funny way of turning something ordinary into something extraordinary. And so, the 19-year-old Alpine skier<\/a> is set to don the colours of the United Arab Emirates at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s unreal. I’ve always been lucky enough to be part of the \u2018first\u2019 of almost everything when it comes to Alpine skiing in the UAE,\u201d the soon-to-be teenage Olympian\u00a0told The National<\/a>. \u201cBut this is the first time where I’m part of, I’d say, something more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn’t just alpine skiing. This is the entirety of not just winter sports, but it’s something for the country,\u201d he added. \u201cI’m doing this for my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Cambridge (Great Britain), Astridge has called the United Arab Emirates home since he was just six months old. He even learned to ski at the world-famous Ski Dubai resort, located inside the Mall of the Emirates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s as big a disadvantage as people think,\u201d he\u00a0told Press Association Sport<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of nations who have qualified athletes without mountains or indoor slopes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s certainly become something of a trailblazer in his home country, where snowfall is incredibly rare<\/a>. Entire programs and talent pipelines have been created in hopes of facilitating his participation in the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an investment that\u2019s paid dividends for the young ski nation, with\u00a0Astridge and teammate Piera Hudson<\/a> set to become the first athletes from the UAE to compete at the Olympic Winter Games.<\/p>\n

And while they\u2019ll be the only skiers from the\u00a0UAE on the slopes at Milano Cortina 2026, Astridge hopes to inspire the next generation of Olympic hopefuls through his exploits in Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to know that it is possible,\u201d he said in the same interview with Press Association Sport. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a hobby that you do until you quit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a pathway in place for all of them and they can do it if they\u2019re good enough. For them, skiing in the Olympics is no longer a fairytale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Alex Astridge first clipped into a pair of skis aged three, the Olympics didn\u2019t seem like even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-261663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}