Joselito Malig

Article (news)

Paige Javier

ABS-CBN News

MANILA – Filipino-American alpine skier Tallulah Proulx made the most of the opportunity to represent her roots, while making history in her first appearance at the Winter Olympics.Proulx and her compatriot Francis Ceccarelli wrapped up their campaign in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games this week, after competing in giant slalom and slalom.For the 17-year-old skier, she&#x27;s grateful to be able to step on the sporting world&#x27;s biggest stage at her young age, while representing the Philippines.&quot;It&#x27;s been such an amazing experience. You know, I met so many people that I&#x27;ve looked up to a lot, and I met so many amazing other athletes. Also, just the whole racing experience was surreal. It was amazing, you know, going down and going through the finish line and seeing all the people cheering and supporting,&quot; Proulx told ABS-CBN News in an online interview on Friday.  &quot;I think that it was really good for me to have experience like being able to go for the Philippines and get and experience the world stage and high level competitions internationally at a young age so that I can grow even further. And it was just so inspirational being here,&quot; she added.Proulx made history as the first Filipina Winter Olympian and the youngest from the Philippines, a feat she will cherish in her young career.&quot;I&#x27;m incredibly proud and honored that I can represent the Philippines, especially because, you know, I got so many messages from people online saying, you know, they saw my performance, they saw me bearing the flag and they felt represented,&quot; she said.&quot;And [they are] so, so proud that a Filipina was on the world stage at, you know, the biggest sporting event of, you know, every four years. It&#x27;s so cool,&quot; Proulx added.The Fil-Am alpine skier fought until the end, finishing all her runs in the giant slalom and slalom events, where some competitors failed to compete the course.Proulx placed 50th out of 95 skiers in slalom, while she finished 54th out of 76 participants in giant slalom.&quot;For giant slalom, I don&#x27;t think my, like, nervousness kind of hit until like around four or five racers out. And then all of a sudden I was like, oh, my gosh, like I&#x27;m going to be an Olympian after this run. And I&#x27;m going on the same course as like Federica Brignone and Mikaela Schiffrin and all these amazing skiers, you know, and I kind of was like maybe had a little bit of doubt,&quot; she said.&quot;But then I kind of thought back and I was like, you know, I&#x27;ve trained so hard for this. I&#x27;ve put in the reps, you know, I&#x27;ve gone to training and I&#x27;ve had so many races leading up to this, like at this point forward, I&#x27;m just going, you know, to do my best... I was able to deliver and finish both runs, which I was really proud of myself for,&quot; Proulx added.Despite going up against former Olympic medalists and veteran alpine skiers, Proulx said she kept her cool and focused on her own performance.&quot;I think for me, it comes down to like trust in my training and trust in my coaches and of course trust in myself that, you know, whatever performance I put forward is my personal best. Maybe it&#x27;s not, you know, Michaela Schifrin, but at the same time, you know, I definitely have a growth mindset,&quot; she said.Looking back, Proulx said she&#x27;s proud of her performance in giant slalom and slalom.&quot;Overall, I&#x27;d say I did pretty well, like, I&#x27;m really proud of myself. And I&#x27;m proud that, you know, I&#x27;m... I was one of the youngest there, and I really tried my best. And so I would give myself like, like a seven and a half, eight,&quot; she said.&quot;There&#x27;s definitely room for improvement. But at the same time, like, I have to manage my expectations. And like, I think I did really well for my first time on, you know, such a big stage,&quot; Proulx explained.<div> </div><div>SUPPORT FOR TALLULAH</div>Despite being one of the newer faces, Proulx was grateful for the &#x27;overwhelming and positive&#x27; support she received both online and offline.  The 17-year-old even met some Filipino volunteers in the Olympic village and members of the Filipino community in Italy, who came out to show support.&quot;It was really, really fun to see like, all the hard work I did to get here and to ski also, you know, translated to people who haven&#x27;t even seen, you know, snow in their life,&quot; she said.What made her Winter Olympics debut was having her family present at the Olimpia delle Tofane in Cortina, cheering her on at the finish line.&quot;It was just so heartwarming. And knowing that they were down there at the finish, I was like, I wasn&#x27;t worried. I was like more calm. And I thought, you know, whatever happens, like my parents will be right there for me and I&#x27;ll be able to see them at the end of the race. So I think it also motivated me a lot,&quot; she said.Maia Hightower, the mother of Proulx, was all praises for her daughter following her historic feat on the slopes.  &quot;I&#x27;m so proud of Tallulah, she worked so incredibly hard. And [she&#x27;s] so proud to represent the Philippines and Philippine heritage. And girls in sports,&quot; she said.<div> </div><div>LESSONS FROM CORTINA</div>As Proulx reflects on her Winter Olympics campaign, she learned a lot not just by being on the slopes, but also from watching her fellow alpine skiers like American icon Mikaela Shiffrin.&quot;Watching all these idols and realizing, you know, I&#x27;m skiing the same course, I think that I kind of learned that or I thought back and, you know, all my hard work has brought me here, but I believe that like I can get to the next level,&quot; she said.&quot;And if I put the work in, I can, you know, hopefully go again for many more Olympics. And also like when you&#x27;re there and when I was in like the start gate and on the slope and just every single part of the Olympics, it went by so quickly. So I think my takeaway is like I want to be in enjoying the present moment,&quot; Proulx added.The 17-year-old said she continues to keep a positive mindset, not really dwelling on the results of the competition.&quot;I don&#x27;t think whatever would happen and if something went wrong, I think I would still have the exact same positivity because, I mean, you can&#x27;t be, I couldn&#x27;t be sad. I&#x27;m in the Olympics, you know,&quot; she said.&quot;I can enjoy every moment and, you know, for some people it&#x27;s a once in a lifetime experience and others it&#x27;s, they&#x27;ve come, they&#x27;ve done it multiple times, but everybody there, all the skiers, everyone in other winter sports, you know, we all put in so much effort to be there,&quot; Proulx added.For now, Proulx and her family will take in the sights of Italy ahead of the closing ceremony on Sunday, February 22.When she gets back to Park City, Utah, she will again hit the slopes for training and races, with the hopes of making it to the next Winter Olympics.&quot;There&#x27;s so many things that, you know, I can work on in my skiing and I just think that this is like only the beginning and I can&#x27;t wait to continue showing up with my best self and putting the work in and seeing where that takes me,&quot; Proulx said.&quot;I hope that, you know, this is a new era and this is, hopefully, we can inspire other Filipinos and inspire them to get involved not only with winter sports but just with sports in general and showing that, you know, Filipinos, we can be present on the world stage,&quot; she added.

Filipino-American alpine skier Tallulah Proulx made the most of the opportunity to represent her roots, while making history in her first appearance at the Winter Olympics.

Filipino-American alpine skier Tallulah Proulx made the most of the opportunity to represent her roots, while making history in her first appearance at the Winter Olympics.

PH's Tallulah Proulx happy with performance in Winter Olympics debut

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PH's Tallulah Proulx happy with performance in Winter Olympics debut

Paige Javier,

ABS-CBN News

Published February 20, 2026 08:00 PM PHT

Read More:

Winter Olympics

Winter Olympic Games

Milano Cortina

Tallulah Proulx

Women's Slalom

Women's Giant Slalom

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