Atpa Ahmadi, 21, the only Iranian woman to qualify for the Beijing Games, first got on the snow, not long after she was able to walk, when her parents took her for a hike in the mountains when she was only three, and she has not sledded her sleds since.
"I was so small, I did not understand what these pieces of wood on the legs were for, but I learned," she repeated.
Her father was a member of the national ski team and coach of the women's team, and initially her older sister Addis was the one trained to conquer the slopes, but it was not long before Ahmadi's natural talent grew to dream of size to reach the Olympics.
"When Addis started her first competitions, I would cry because I wanted to follow her and be with her," Ahmadi said.
One of the souvenirs her sister brought her from the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics in Austria was the Games emblem.
"So I started dreaming about the Olympics. I remember as a kid I awkwardly drew the five Olympic rings on the back of my notebook," Ahmadi said.
"I convinced myself I would participate, not really knowing what the games were like."
She said international competitors were often shocked when they heard she was from Iran.
"They ask me if we have snow. They think we are a desert country like Saudi Arabia," the surfer said.
"But even in the summer you can practice the sport and in Damavand or Almcoa, there are snowy mountains that are 5,600 meters high."
Ahmadinejad's competitors are amazed by her amazing story, Photo: Getty Images
They are also "shocked to find that women are surfing in an Islamic country," she added.
"I tell them that religion in Iran does not prevent women from doing sports."
Iran boasts a number of ski resorts, open to both sexes.
The ones closest to Tehran are popular family hangouts in winter and on weekends.
At the age of 10, Ahmadi traveled to Kazakhstan for her first competition abroad, and at the age of 16 she joined the national team. My".
Ahmadinejad's first big disappointment came ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongyang, South Korea.
"I was hugely motivated. I was 17 and wanted to make history, to be the youngest Iranian surfer to go to the Olympics," she said.
But the committee did not select her, saying she was too young.
"I was devastated. I cried for two weeks. I wanted to stop skiing," she said.
"Two months later, I lifted myself up and started training again. I wanted to prove to everyone what I am capable of despite my age."
Atpa Ahmadi puts Iran on the Olympic map at the Winter Games, Photo: Getty Images
The difficult journey to the Olympics, did not ruin her dream and Ahmadi said she wanted to end her father’s “unfinished journey” after a lack of funds forced him to quit professional sports, which brought her further motivation.
In 2019 she finished in 46th place in the slalom competition at the World Championships, and finished in exactly the same place in 2021.
Eventually she achieved the criteria for the Games, became the third Iranian in history at the Winter Olympics, an icon in her village, and hoped to set an example for other young women.
"I was born in a traditional town where there are not many professional athletes," she said.
"A girl from our region who comes to the largest sports arena in the world can be a role model."
Today, she got on the track together with the Israeli Noa Solos, when she managed to finish the first round, but did not finish in the second and was not ranked, when she will continue to try and maybe achieve better results in four years in Italy.
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