By Nicole Chia for SNOC

Faiz Basha may have taken a tumble during the giant slalom event at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, but his fighting spirit is far from fallen.

An unexpected release of the binding in his right ski during the first run resulted in the Singaporean skiing out after about 40 gates into the 56-gate course at the Stelvio ski slope in Bormio on Feb 14. He recorded a Did Not Finish (DNF) and did not qualify for the second run.

But the challenging start to Faiz’s Olympic debut – which he described as “like when you are playing a video game and you reach the final boss battle” – has done little to affect the 23-year-old’s sense of perspective as he looks ahead to the slalom event on Feb 16.

“Honestly, I’m pretty content with the race today. For me, I would rather DNF skiing in search of speed, than to finish skiing conservatively, especially at an event like this,” said Faiz, who is Singapore’s first alpine skier at the Winter Olympics and only the country’s second Winter Olympian.

“I had an okay top section and very good middle section with almost no drifts. Coming into the final pitch I made a mistake and got low in the line. I tried to pivot the skis to correct the line and create speed before the closing flat.”

He also pointed to his sector timings throughout the 1448m-long course as an encouraging sign – he recorded 23.60 seconds at the first sector and 44.44s after the second, before falling in the third of four sectors.

“Today was a challenging race even for the world’s best; the spread in timings was unprecedented, so I am happy to have skied my way and not backed down,” added Faiz.

He is not the first athlete to have experienced an unexpected release of the ski binding at these Olympics. Fellow competitor and veteran Italian skier Luca De Aliprandini also faced the same issue, as did downhill bronze medallist Dominik Paris in the super-G event.

Singapore team manager Marco Bardelli noted that such occurrences were not uncommon, emphasising that these are beyond an athlete’s control.

“We’re not trying to make excuses … it’s just something that happened. But I’m very happy about Faiz’s performance, first of all because he showed that he is quite a mature athlete – he was not feeling any pressure and he was not nervous,” he said. “And I’m happy with the pace that he was having. Faiz was definitely attacking, so he was not just skiing like a tourist.”

Bardelli, who is also president of the Singapore Ski and Snowboard Association, reckons the way that Faiz tackled the “challenging course” should provide some measure of confidence. He added: “I think Faiz knows exactly what he has to do, and he has been doing that for the past few weeks and days. Tomorrow (Feb 15) we will do the final training for the slalom, and Monday we’re back racing again.”

The slalom event on Feb 16 is one that Faiz is looking forward to, having trained in the discipline for most of his life. With closely-set gates on the shortest course among the alpine skiing disciplines, the slalom demands quick and precise turns.

“I’m more experienced in slalom, especially with quick recoveries. It’s an event where there will be far more DNFs,” said Faiz.

“But for me, I’m excited.”

Catch Faiz compete live at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at https://www.youtube.com/@ageofsports/streams.

Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images