MALAYSIANSKINI | For 22-year-old alpine skier Aruwin Salehhuddin, every descent down the slopes carries more than the promise of speed and glory - it carries the weight of her family’s sacrifice to reach the Olympic dream.

Aruwin is Malaysia’s first woman Winter Olympian and the youngest athlete the country has ever fielded at the Winter Games, having made her debut at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022.

The Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will mark her second consecutive appearance, once again representing Malaysia in alpine skiing, a rare feat for an athlete from a tropical nation.

While the world sees the glam and glitz of the Olympic Village, her journey to the top has been shaped by long drives, missed classes, and financial investments that have turned an elite sporting career into a daily reckoning.

However, long before skiing became a professional pursuit, Aruwin recounted how her...