Yanqing, China—The country’s Chef de Mission Bones Floro remained supportive of Asa Miller after his disappointing result in the men’s giant slalom of alpine skiing on Sunday at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Miller, 21, was one of 33 competitors who were DNF (Did Not Finish) after he fell from his skis, 15.9 seconds into his first run of the event staged in almost zero visibility and snowy conditions.
“Even if it wasn’t the ideal result for him, he [Miller] gave it his all. We know he’ll keep moving forward so we’re very proud of him. Keep going Asa,” Floro said. “Sadly, Asa, along with 32 others, were not able to complete their first runs.”
Floro watched Miller compete along with International Olympic Committee Representative to the Philippines Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski and Team Philippines Covid-19 liaison officer Nikki Cheng.
They tried to catch Miller after his stint but the Filipino-American rushed to his room at the Athletes’ Olympic Village.
“We’re giving him some space at the moment,” Philippine Ski and Snowboard Federation president Jim Apelar said, adding the weather, and not Miller, was disappointing.
“I’m really disappointed but it is part of the game,” Apelar said. “The weather condition was very poor earlier, you cannot see when it’s snowing heavily unlike this afternoon when there’s a little bit of improvement.”
“But life has to move on. We still have the men’s slalom on Wednesday, we’ll just bounce back from there,” he added.
Cheng was also sad about Miller’s result but looked forward to the slalom.
“There’s a little disappointment not on Asa but on the situation. We wanted the best, we wanted to see him out there to finish, but it’s part of the sports,” said Cheng, president of the Philippine Skating Union. “Better luck on his next event on February 16.”
Athlete’s welfare officer Joebert Yu also expressed his disappointment.
“I feel sad because you trained for a couple of years and then everything went well for just a few seconds or less than one day,” Yu said. “But Asa still has the next event, so he needs to prepare and forget what happened today. I’m praying also for a good weather on Wednesday.”