Para alpine skier Ralf Etienne becomes unofficial Haitian ambassador to the world
Ralf Etienne produced a creditable run in the Para alpine skiing giant slalom at Milano Cortina 2026, making history as the first Winter Paralympian from Haiti 26 Mar 2026
“'So 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.”
So said Ralf Etienne after competing in Para alpine skiing at Milano Cortina 2026. He became the first athlete from Haiti to compete at a Paralympic Winter Games.
Etienne only completed his first run of the men’s giant slalom standing on 13 March, but that already put him ahead of seven other skiers who were unable to complete a run.
“Just to give you the truth, I've been skiing 80 days all my life,” Etienne said. “Eighty days. And you see the result of my first run. I was competitive.”
Competitive, that is, on the iconic course of Tofane, which has hosted many memorable competitions throughout alpine skiing history.
Etienne may have been the slowest skier on run 1, but his time of 1 minute, 37.33 seconds was certainly in touch with the field. He did not complete his second run.
“You know, this race was one of the hardest races for a guy with one leg,” he said. “When I finished, they [the other skiers] were so proud of me because they had been supporting me and they wanted me to keep going.
“But the point to me is that on the first run I proved to the world, 'Hey, they can ski competitively'. I've passed that test.”
To the Paralympics
Etienne recalled the disaster that set him on his Paralympic path. In the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he was trapped upside down for eight hours in a collapsed building. He lost his leg when it was cut free.
“I went from the 2010 earthquake and rubble in Haiti, to now on the top of the world with the best skiers, with the very best skiers in the world, skiing, racing, and I'm competitive.
“I didn't just participate as a fun guest. No, my time was just as good as your time.”
He competed at Milano Cortina 2026 after benefitting from a competition support grant from the International Paralympic Committee’s Sport for Mobility programme.
The grant supports National Paralympic Committees and International Federations by covering athlete travel to and from international competitions, attendance and international classification.
Etienne learned to ski after an orthopaedic surgeon working in Haiti facilitated a transfer to the United States so he could have a prosthetic fitted. There he obtained a college scholarship and an MBA. One day, he agreed to accompany friends on a skiing trip.
“And then I touched the snow, and I never turned back.”
After college, Etienne took up a job in investment banking. His colleagues can’t understand why he would turn up for work when he could be streaking down mountains.
“They all tell me to quit banking and do this full time. They think this is way more fun.
“(There is) more money in banking but I don't do it for the money. I do it because I really like it. I like finance.”
Etienne’s work has aided in his charitable endeavours in Haiti, where he has helped rebuild homes damaged in the earthquake, and boosted healthcare provision.
“As a humanitarian, it's important for me to understand how the biggest companies in the world raise debt and equity and how they function and how their financial structure is set up,” he said.
“And that makes me a much better humanitarian because it gives me access, it gives me exposure, it gives me information I can leverage to make the world a better place.”
Speed on the Slopes ⛷️❄️ | Ralf Etienne, Haiti's first Winter Paralympian
Inspiring Haiti’s youth
As an athlete with an improbable story who hails from a newsworthy and unwintry country, Etienne had been in demand with the media in Cortina.
Haiti was one of five countries, along with El Salvador, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Portugal to make its Paralympic Winter Games debut.
“In the last two weeks, all I've been doing is interviews with multiple media all over the world, some of the biggest,” he said during the Games.
“And what I get to say is that there is hope. I have to tell the Haitian youth that if I can do this today with one leg, they can do anything.
"I get to show the young Haitians it's not all loss. Because me, Ralf, I was born and raised in Haiti. I was educated in Haiti. I went to the United States just for college. I'm as Haitian as it gets. And I can be here doing this.
“Haiti has a lot to offer, but I tell the youth in Haiti and the children - because me, I might be older and I don't have dreams, but the children, their dreams are not broken yet. They still have dreams. Allow them to dream.”
Haiti has certainly taken note.
“If you see the comments of Haitians on my Instagram, it's crazy. They are so proud of me doing this,” Etienne said.
“The biggest newspaper in Haiti just dropped an article today. They call me the ambassador of Haiti. Literally, the global ambassador of Haiti.”
And if you think Para alpine skiing is just a fun and useful way for Etienne to achieve bigger goals, you would be wrong.
“In four years, of course, I'm going to come back here to get gold. In four years, I'm not going to come here to compete. I'm going to come here to get the gold.”
Read more about the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games
