Philippines' one-man team Asa Miller : I told Hidilyn Diaz how much she's inspired me

Asa Miller is ready to represent the Philippines as the nation's sole athlete at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The alpine skier will be competing at his second Games after a debut appearance at PyeongChang 2018.

He was just 17 when he first took part in the Olympics. Four years on, Miller wants to improve on his results in Korea, and inspire a new generation of skiers.

And speaking of motivation, he had a chance to speak to the Philippines' first-ever gold medallist, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, before Beijing.

"I was lucky enough to be on a call with Hidilyn Diaz as part of the [Philippines Olympic Committee] Athletes' Commission. So that's a huge inspiration, watching our all-time best performance. And being the first one to take a gold for a country, that's the pinnacle of athletic achievement, for sure."

"I just told her that what she did was hugely motivational, and I hope I can follow it up well."

A dual nationality holder, Miller's father Kelly is from the U.S., his mother, Polly Bisquera, is from Manila, and he was born in Portland, Oregon.

He began skiing at one-and-a-half years old thanks to his dad, and his mum has also learned to ski well in the United States.

On visits back to the Philippines he gets some interesting reactions when he tells people he's a ski racer.

"People are slightly confused, the Philippines is a tropical country, most haven't seen snow before, it's not something I'd expect them to understand. Huge mountain, crazy slopes in a niche European sport.

"Whenever I go, everyone always asks if I'm a basketball player!"

Asa Miller: Dave Ryding is 'super inspirational'

70th out of 110 competitors in PyeongChang, Miller is a much more experienced skier than he was four years ago, but he still has great memories of his debut Olympic Games.

"Waving the flag in the Opening Ceremony was one of the greatest moments of my life," he says, and now he gets to do it all over again.

The 21-year-old had already passed the minimum mark for Olympic qualification of 160 points set by the International Skiing Federation (FIS) in November 2021, qualifying for a second Olympics.

Now he's setting the bar higher.

"Going into the Olympics, I hope to improve upon my performance from last time, I took 70th in the GS (Giant Slalom)," he says.

"I feel like I have a better understanding of how to deal with the pressure, knowing that everybody is watching and that I can hopefully relax through it this time around and just do what I know I need to do.

"I'm competing the GS and the slalom, so that should be really fun and I just hope to display my best skiing and represent the Philippines the best I can."

And he's taking inspiration from others on the slopes too, like British skier Dave Ryding who won Britain's first ever World Cup in Austria right before the Beijing Games at the age of 35.

"Yeah, that was awesome. It was a great race and big congratulations to him. That's huge... the fact that you can do it at any age is super inspirational."

"He grew up skiing on dry slopes, which is huge, especially coming from a tropical country where snow isn't available, he didn't grow up skiing on snow and look where he is now. So that's like a huge thing.

"I hope I get to meet him in China."

Ryding's incredible developement on dry slopes is a potential path for future Filipino skiers - just the people Miller is hoping to inspire.

"My journey has been super unique and I really hope it does serve as motivation and inspiration for a lot of other kids that could ski race for the Philippines.

"Ever since I began four years ago at my last Olympics, the ski team has grown like five or six times larger than it was. So I hope to keep on doing that and keep inspiring the next generation of Filipino skiers and snowboarders."

And Beijing is far from the end of the line for Miller, "I hope to make a third Winter Olympics appearance after Beijing."