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Meet the man who quit his job to become Tonga’s first Winter Olympic ski racer
When most people think of Tonga, an island nation plonked in the middle of the South Pacific ocean, they don't associate it with snow sports. But Kasete Skeen, a 34-year-old Tongan-British national, is out to change that.
This month Skeen made history when he became the first representative of the Tongan Ski Federation to compete against world-class skiers at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland. Unfortunately, he crashed out on his second run in the giant slalom qualification race, but is determined not to let a tumble at the first hurdle dampen his dream of competing at the Winter Olympics – if the 1993 film Cool Runnings, which told the story of the first Jamaican bobsleigh team, inspired anyone, it's Skeen.
In order to rewrite the Tongan history books Skeen, who was born in London to a Tongan father and English mother, quit his job as a musician and operations manager for the Opera Holland Park festival in London five months ago and moved to the Italian resort of Trentino, and dedicated his life to ski training. On his crowd funding page Skeen explains his life transformation: “Until six months ago I smoked, I drank too much, I ate badly and I didn’t exercise at all.
“I’m not by any stretch of the imagination an experienced skier. Nor have I led a life of athletic pursuit - in fact the truth is quite the opposite.” Despite this, he is determined to attempt to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The Kingdom of Tonga, which is made up of 170 islands in the South Pacific, has never before been represented at the Alpine Skiing World Championships or in a skiing discipline at the Winter Olympics, but with the Games in Pyeongchang a year away things might be about to change.
Before he began his training, Skeen had only ever skied in his teens, on a school trip when he was 14. ”Competing here at the World Championships in St Moritz has been an amazing experience,” he said in a statement on his Facebook page following last week’s event.
“Even though I made it to the finish line I was unhappy with how I skied in the first run. On the second I therefore vowed to give it my all. If I had completed the course without trying to ski my best I would have felt defeated,” he continued. Skeen had completed a number of FIS races ahead of St Mortiz, earning enough points to be put forward by the Tongan Ski Federation as a competitor in the World Championships in Switzerland.
So how does a Tongan from London become a professional downhill skier? Skeen approached the Royal Tongan Ski Federation, who entered him into last week's race, and he has taken to crowd funding, where his campaign raised £11,386 for his training mission, almost 14 per cent above his target. He has also rallied the support of sponsors including Vist, who have provided him with skis, training kit and his racing suit.
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“I think it’s great to work with smaller companies because they’re much more personal, much more like a family and for an individual that means you don’t get lost,” says Skeen, who wears a traditional Tongan necklace with his custom-designed ski suit.
Despite the rigorous training involved in downhill skiing, and the painful crashes, Skeen says that it’s the tight-fitting lycra suits that have intimidated him the most. “Since I started out on my journey one immovable object has been looming on the horizon, something I had thus far managed to avoid for my entire life but that now I would have no other choice but to embrace: lycra,” he wrote on his website. And true, his appearance does not reflect that of the average ski racer, his wild long hair may take the sleek Swiss or French competitors by surprise at the start gate, but his determination is not to be underestimated.
Fuahea Semi, also known as Bruno Banani, is the only other person that has ever represented the Royal Tonga Ski Federation, which was founded in 2014, at the Winter Olympics – he made a luge debut at the Games in Sochi in 2014. It is yet to be announced whether he will return to global stage in South Korea.
Following his fall in St Moritz, Skeen is keen to show his determination to continue on his ski racing misson: “We all fall down sometimes but knowing that I went down fighting makes it easier to stand up and try again.”
St Moritz was the first major event for Skeen, who now has the hard task of training and competing to put his name and his country on the qualifying list for Pyeongchang. Over the next 12 months he will need to compete in FIS accredited races or World Cup races and earn no more than 140 points in order to qualify for the Winter Olympics. If he succeeds he could be set to rewrite the record books.
