The Olympic Committee of Kosovo, a lot to celebrate! The big news of their Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018, the birthday of the country’s first ever Winter Olympian and the 10^th Anniversary of Independence.

With the lighting of the flame in Pyeongchang, Kosovo is one of six countries competing in the Winter Olympics for the first time, together with Ecuador, Eritrea, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore. On February 16, IOC President Thomas Bach met Kosovo Olympic Committee leaders, President Besim Hasani and Secretary General Shasivar Haxhijaj, congratulating them for the great success for the nation. 10 years earlier, on 17 February 2008, the young country officially marked its independence from Serbia. However, Kosovo was recognized as a separate Olympic country only late in 2014, when the IOC granted it such a status, becoming the 50^th of the European Olympic Committees.

“When I started skiing, Kosovo was not an independent country,” says Kosovo’s sole representative Albin Tahiri, who celebrated his 29th birthday last Thursday. The Slovenian-born Tahriri, who began skiing in Slovenia at the age of 7, stressed the fact that when Kosovo proclaimed independence he wanted to help by representing the country as an athlete. Now given the chance to represent Kosovo, the birthplace of his father, Tahiri is competing against the world’s best skiers.

Tahiri is one of the 271 athletes to have received an IOC scholarship through the Olympic Solidarity programme, with his country one of 60 to benefit from it. The pioneering Kosovar has entered all five men’s Alpine skiing events at PyeongChang 2018, though he specialises in the speed events (downhill, super-G and Alpine combined).

The young athlete is receiving outstanding global support, by getting messages and requests on social media from Kosovars and people from all over the world. He has also had words of encouragement from Kosovar sporting icon and judo star Majlinda Kelmendi, who made history by winning the country’s very first Olympic gold medal at Rio 2016, when Kosovo participated for the first time at Summer Olympic Games.