Flying Solo: Malaysia’s One-Athlete Winter Olympic Team

When major teams arrive in Italy with more than 200 athletes, Malaysia’s delegation looks very different: a single competitor, 21-year-old Alpine skier Aruwin Salehhuddin, who carried the Jalur Gemilang alone at the opening ceremony. Four years earlier, at 17, she became Malaysia’s first female Olympian and shared the flag with a male teammate; this time she hoisted it by herself.

“It’s pretty heavy!” she said. “Hopefully, I’m a lot stronger now to be able to lift it up myself. I want to be able to raise it high and proud.” Malaysia is one of 15 nations fielding just one athlete, a group that also includes Alpine skiers from Eritrea and Pakistan, cross-country skiers from Malta and Nigeria, and a solitary skeleton athlete from Puerto Rico, a U.S.

territory that competes under its own flag and National Olympic Committee.

Malaysia