Para skier Ralf Etienne, who lost his leg in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, will on Friday become the first person from the country to compete at a Winter Paralympic Games. He told RFI it's a chance to showcase his home nation's strength and resilience on the world stage.
"I'm making history as the first Haitian and also the first standing Caribbean at the Winter Paralympics," he said, adding: "Yeah, it's a lot of responsibility..."
Etienne, who lost his left leg after being trapped in the rubble of a building that collapsed during the earthquake which devastated Port au Prince in January 2010, will compete in the men's para alpine skiing giant slalom.
"I'm getting a chance to show the world a positive side of my country. That's very important to me. I feel like an ambassador showing the world that Haitians have resilience, dedication, persistence and can work hard."
Raised in Miragoane, some 80km west of Haiti's capital Port au Prince, he laments that the images most often seen of his home country are those of natural disasters and gang violence.
"There's far, far too much negativity about the country. And yes, it is not perfect, just like every other country. But I'm doing this for the youth in Haiti."
"But," he added, "there is a love for skiing as well there." That love blossomed three years ago at the ski resort of Breckenridge in Colorado in the United States.
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'We belong everywhere'
"I think first of all I love the mountains," he explains. "My life was moving to the United States, back to Haiti and so I wasn't settled. So when I finally moved to the US as a banker three years ago, I settled. And then I wanted to do a sport as a disabled man. I just touched the snow and I never stepped back."
He continued: "The other part is the challenge. I want to show the world that as Haitian people and black people, we belong everywhere. We have a seat at any table. You know, we can put the work in, get to any place."
Etienne's skills were developed at the National Ability Centre in Utah and since last August, he has been competing at European events to gain the ranking points needed to send him to the Paralympics.
"It's been basically non-stop. The hard part is that there are different kinds of skiing. I'm really finding out which one I'm better at. I think right now my performance is better in giant slalom but I also did slalom, I did super-G. I really like the speed with super-G."
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Lasting legacy
Etienne, who was working as a media entrepreneur in 2010, was trapped in rubble for eight hours, hanging upside down, in the aftermath of the earthquake, losing his leg as a result.
"The earthquake woke me up. Because here I am at the pinnacle of my success, and I'm dying. And there is nothing I can do about it," he recalls.
"The building is crumbling with me in it. And I was very grateful to see that I can't take my fame with me. I remember thinking, if I survive hanging upside down I'm going to live a life to serve people. So in the last 16 years since the earthquake, I've been trying to understand what that means, to serve people."
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He recounts that he felt suicidal after losing his leg.
"I thought I was ugly, I thought I was an outcast, I thought I was worthless. But what's given me strength to live with my reality is the humanitarian work I started doing."
Since then, he has been involved in schemes to help rebuild communities following storms, as well as educational programmes.
Now an investment banker working in London, Etienne will be back at his desk after the Games – but with a legacy he hopes will inspire others from Haiti, no matter what the result on the slopes.
"One of the biggest newspapers in Japan is doing a profile on me to commemorate the tsunami in Japan. So I guess I'm really speaking to a whole nation, as a Haitian, to tell them: 'You know, I went through the same thing as you. It's not all lost. It's not hopeless, here I am today. So there is hope for you.'"
