Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 9) – Father knows best.
This cliché is applicable to alpine skier Asa Miller, the lone Filipino in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, as he credits his American father Kelly for influencing him to take up the sport.
The 21-year-old Miller shared that his father has been hooked to alpine skiing for a long time, and does community work as a member of the Mount Hood Ski Patrol in Oregon for 27 years.
His father also enrolled Asa to ski clubs such as the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club and the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation.
The Filipino alpine skier then entered the Mount Meadows race team when he was 16 years old. The following year, he first represented the country at the 2017 World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships in Are, Sweden where he finished 39th in the slalom event.
“I focused entirely on skiing as it became more serious, it’s what I love and my passion,” said Miller, who was still into baseball as a catcher for Lincoln High School before going full time for skiing.
The older Miller said the whole family has been doing skiing for fun, but Asa took it seriously and led him to compete for the Philippines in two Winter Olympic editions.
“We started just playing around the snow,” said Kelly, who is with his son in Beijing. “Over the years, he’s been enjoying the competition and then it got higher and higher as he progressed more – and that’s his choice.”
The fruits of their hard work paid off in 2018 as Asa made his Winter Olympics debut in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where he finished 70th out of 110 competitors in the giant slalom event.
“It’s a big challenge for sure, I mean you never say never,” the older Miller said. “We really need to train hard this week and ski the best he has ever had in his entire life probably.”
In his second Winter Olympics stint at Beijing, Miller will see action in the men’s giant slalom event on Feb. 13, and in the men’s slalom competition on Feb. 16.
