Vieira set for Winter Youth Olympics debut

ABIGAIL Vieira will create history for TT when she becomes the first athlete to represent this country at the Winter Youth Olympics, on Friday.

Abigail and her older sister Ria were born just outside Boston in the north-east region of the US to TT couple Richard and Alison Vieira.

Abigail, 17, will be TT's only representative at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland.

She is joined by Richard (chef de mission), Ria (coach) and Lori Ford (coach). The Winter Youth Olympics will feature athletes from 15 to 18 years old.

She competes in alpine skiing and will compete in three events at the Youth Olympics – slalom, giant slalom and super giant (Super G) slalom. She will start her Olympic journey at 5.15 am TT time (10.15 am Switzerland time) in the Super G.

In an interview two weeks ago at Olympic House, Port of Spain, she said she is not going to Switzerland to make up numbers.

“I know some of them (her competitors) because I have skied with them since I was really young, but for my expectations, I think that I am not going there just to ski for fun...I want to be there, I want to work hard, I want to be proud of the results that I get. That might not be first, second or third, but if it’s something that I am proud of and if I am just building on the skills that I have then that is good for me.”

The Super G event will include athletes from Austria, Mexico, Argentina, France, Finland, USA, Sweden and Norway among others.

Over the past couple days Abigail has been getting familiar with the course.

In the past, TT were represented at the (Senior) Winter Olympics in bobsleigh at the 1994, 1998 and 2002 editions.