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Ralf Etienne found himself trapped beneath the wreckage of a fallen building for eight long hours after an earthquake shook Haiti.
Fast forward sixteen years, and Etienne stands poised at the starting line of Italy’s formidable Olympia delle Tofane course, reflecting on his extraordinary journey as a para-alpine skier.
“From being buried under rubble in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake to standing atop the Dolomites with the world’s elite skiers, it’s been an incredible path,” Etienne remarked.
At 36, Etienne made history on Friday by completing the giant slalom course in one minute and 37.33 seconds during the men’s standing event, marking Haiti’s debut in the Winter Paralympics.
Despite his impressive entry into the sport, Etienne was unfortunately disqualified from his second run.
Arthur Bauchet took out the standing event for his second gold of the Games, ahead of Switzerland’s silver medalist Robin Cuche.
Russian athlete Aleksei Bugaev took bronze
“I’ve been skiing just 80 days, all my life,” Etienne said.
“‘Haiti has a skier,’ that’s what my coach said when I came down.”
“And that’s the most beautiful sentence I’ve heard in a long time.”
Emerging from the rubble when more than 300,000 people died following the 2010 earthquake, Etienne hopes he can “show the young Haitians it’s not all lost”.
The full-time investment banker – who works for Bank of America – had already amassed a healthy following in the Caribbean before Friday’s event.
He is already plotting his path to the 2030 Games in the French Alps.
“In four years, I’m not going to come here to compete – I’m going to come here to get the gold,” Etienne said.
Tudhope scores a second medal
Meanwhile, Australian para-snowboard star Ben Tudhope says he’s surprised even himself by claiming his second Milan-Cortina Games medal.
The 26-year-old Tudhope added another bronze medal to his Paralympics haul after finishing third from two runs in the men’s SB-LL2 event on Friday in Cortina.
Dominant Italian local hero Emanuel Perathoner finished the course in 54.28 seconds to win gold, with Switzerland’s Fabrice von Gruenigen trailing by 2.01sec for silver.
Tudhope finished a further 1.04 seconds behind von Gruenigen to win Australia’s second medal of the Games and his third-career Paralympics medal, having won silver in the men’s snowboard cross.
Tudhope clinches an equal-best finish for Australia in the men’s banked slalom, with Simon Patmore winning SB-UL bronze at the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics.
Patmore is the only Australian to win Paralympic snowboard cross gold, also doing so in 2018.
Tudhope, who was born with cerebral palsy that causes partial paralysis on his left side, has now won Australia’s last three medals at the Winter Paralympics.
The Sydney local’s SB-LL2 snowboard cross bronze was also the country’s only medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Tudhope said he hadn’t expected to win another medal, let alone one in the banked slalom event after a sub-par seventh-placed finish in the 2025/26 World Cup season.
Memories of his banked slalom run at the Beijing Games, where he finished ninth, also ran through Tudhope’s mind.
“It was so unexpected. I thought maybe I could get one – the season hasn’t been the best for me,” Tudhope said.
“I definitely wanted to be able to put on a show here, and that’s what I did.”
Also on Friday, Australian para-alpine skier Josh Hanlon finished 10th in the men’s giant slalom sitting after veteran Michael Milton withdrew following his course inspection.
The self-styled “fastest no-handed man on the planet” and Australian captain Sean Pollard was 12th in the SB-UL event, and debutant Aaron McCarthy finished 13th in the SB-LL1.
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