Kenya’s female cross-country skier Ashley Ongong’a: Gangwon 2024 is not just about making history but also inspiring African youth
The 16-year-old, the first female cross-country skier from her country to qualify for the Winter Youth Olympic Games, will take part in events at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre on 29 January.
Cross-Country Skiing
Ashley Ongong’a has a quiet determination about her.
She’s on the verge of realising her lifelong childhood ambition, competing at an Olympic event, and in the process becoming the first ever Kenyan, indeed the first ever African, to compete in cross-country skiing at a Winter Youth Olympic Games.
It's the culmination of two key moments in life that have stuck with the 16-year-old.
The first was when she tried skiing at the age of four, and a year later when she first dreamt of competing at the Olympics.
At Gangwon 2024, she is joined by Kenya’s France-based alpine skier Issa Laborde, an honour the Italy-born skier doesn’t take lightly.
“It's a big responsibility because I know now so many Africans now know about me,” Ongong'a told Olympics.com from Modena, just before she left for the Republic of Korea.
“I really hope that [after seeing me] many other young people can see it as an amazing opportunity to try skiing. Because I think it’s time for Africa to fully come into winter sport.”
Ongong’a is keen to soar on the Olympic snow and has modelled herself on the trailblazing journey of Philip Boit, the first Kenyan to compete at the Winter Olympic Games at Nagano 1998.
Ashley Tshanda Ongong'a is Kenya's first female cross-country skier to compete at the Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Icy childhood dreams for Ongong’a
Ongong’a has been skiing since she was a young child. But unlike many cross-country skiers, her passion for loving the cold wasn’t passed on to her by her family.
She was a natural athlete.
Her first gliding experience was on roller skis. She easily transferred the stamina and strength onto the snow and ice.
“I was like three or four when I started to roller ski. My first coach asked my parents if I could ski, and when I tried it, it became my first love. I did many other sports too, like dancing, but when I had to choose, I chose cross country skiing,” said the Kenyan.
“It was during the summer holidays when she was four years old,” added her dad Steve Ongong’a, who immigrated to Italy to study. “Her mother Marie-Jeanne Kamba enrolled her for summer camp activities with a local ski club. During her first skating lesson, her instructor noticed she had a good skiing posture and asked if she wanted to try cross-country skiing… she has been training ever since.”
Embracing the skis and having the opportunity to do it at an early age helped her develop and master the technique.
The Rome native loved the fact that she was good at it quite quickly.
Turning the Olympic dream into a reality
Ongong’a began competing at regional and national events as a child, and by the time she was 10, was already topping Italian age group competitions, charting a path towards her dream.
"As a kid I liked to watch the Olympics on TV… when I was five or six, I told my parents that one day I would go to the Olympics with the Kenyan or Congo flag," she said.
“I still remember that particular moment, we were watching the Olympics and there was the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony,” her dad recalled.
“She told us, ‘One day I will be there!’ At that moment, we thought it was just a childhood dream, but she ended up dedicating her life to working towards becoming an Olympian. It’s just amazing how such a dream can end up becoming a reality… out of hard work.”
The Olympics angle came to the fore again when the teenager, whose mother is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, had to pick which country to represent on the FIS circuit. Kenya’s rich sporting history influenced her to pick her father’s home nation.
“That's also around the first time I heard of Philip Boit, and when I saw what he did at the Olympics, I said, ‘I can do this! I can do it!’ He was an inspiration.
“After that I started to have this idea of going to the Olympics and I talked about it with my coach, Francesco Silverio,” said the student at Bachmann Sport College in Tarvisio, an Italian municipality known for its heavy alpine snow.
“Picking Kenya was a good choice as it’s always top of the sports. And then when I learnt that I had the chance to compete at Gangwon I started crying…in my mind till now… it’s still like a dream. I am happy, so excited…”
Gangwon 2024 a stepping stone for Ashley Ongong'a
Qualifying for the 10km classic event in Nagano, was the first chapter of Boit’s Winter Olympic story. He went on to Salk Lake City 2002, and Turin 2006.
10 years later, Sabrina Simader carried on Kenya’s Winter Games revolution.
After representing Kenya at the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games, Simader became her nation’s first alpine skier to compete at the Olympic Winter Games at PyeongChang 2018.
Cross-country skiing, like other winter sports, has over the years had a special draw for athletes from countries that don’t have much snow or ice.
And Kenya’s latest representative hopes that after her pioneering act at Asia’s first Winter Youth Olympics, she too can continue flying her nation’s flag at Olympic events in a sport that’s deemed a test of endurance, flexibility, and speed.
“It’s all in my mind…if I say I can do this, I will do this. And once I try to do it, I can be better next time,” Ongong'a told us.
"It's an amazing moment for me and for Africa. I really hope that I can inspire African youth all over the world that they could also try this."
As she relishes the life-changing Olympic experience at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre, Ongong’a, who had a chance to compete at her second Cross-Country Roller Skiing Junior World Cup competition this season, is looking forward to competing with athletes from nations that have produced some of the greatest ever cross-country skiers.
“The Norwegians, Finland, and Sweden have so many good and strong skiers, it's like athletics for us Kenyans. I follow them, I watch how they ski, how they do it, and I know if I do this like they do, I can be better,” she concluded on the chance of being around some of the best skiers.