Dubai: On one side of the large glass windows dividing Ski Dubai from Mall of the Emirates, are busy diners and shoppers. On the other, zipping down the slopes, you might find the UAE’s first Winter Olympian.
Meet Alexander Astridge, a 19-year-old British resident of Dubai, who has quietly been making history. In February this year, he represented the UAE at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, which took place in the birthplace of Alpine skiing: Europe.
For a boy who grew up in the UAE’s desert environment since he was six months old, the experience of flying the country’s flag as a skier at the Winter Olympics was surreal, to say the least.
Astridge said: “I think it’s every kid’s dream to go to the Olympics, but that’s just what it was – a ‘dream.’ But as I grew up in Dubai and saw the impossible feats the [city] continues to do, I realised that I could be part of this pioneer of impossibility [mindset], and I think that’s what I did.”
An unusual start
Astridge’s journey to the Olympics has been most unusual. He first clipped on his skis when he was three years old, and his training ground was an indoor ski zone in a busy Dubai shopping mall: Ski Dubai.
He credits his mother, Evelyn Pali, a sales manager and associate director at Better Homes, with introducing him to skiing: “I don’t come from a skiing family. Neither of my parents can ski past a level, which is considered ‘intermediate’. My mother just wanted us to have skiing as a general life skill and knew it was easier to learn young.”
Astridge and his sister Bea, who is two years older to him, regularly enrolled in skiing summer camps and weekend training sessions, and began to enjoy it. Astridge said: “Most kids in Dubai head to the Sevens [Stadium] to play rugby on a Saturday morning. For me, it was Ski Dubai. It felt normal to me.”
Bea continued to ski until age 16, and was part of Ski Dubai’s first-ever sponsored team in 2017. However, she quit to focus on academics, and is currently studying law and criminology at Oxford Brookes University in the UK.
Astridge said: “Until the point at which, my sister quit skiing to focus on academics, the competitive nature between the two of us trying to one up each other was probably one of the key components to my success, early on. To add onto that, my parents have also been a key driver to my success.” His father, Peter, is an A380 captain for Emirates airlines. He is the reason why they moved to the UAE from Cambridge, England, and why Astridge was able to pursue his dream.
Skiing was just part of life for Astridge, until right after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, when he met Mohammad Khadim, the head of snow sports at the UAE Winter Sports Federation (UAEWSF). Khadim was looking for talented skiers and noticed 15-year-old Astridge’s skill on the slopes. He asked if Astridge would be interested in attempting to qualify for the next Winter Olympics. “Sure, I’ll give it a go,” was his response.
Khadim’s encouragement has been a driving force for Astridge, who said: “Ever since I was introduced to him at 15, he has always been a mentor, not only in sports but also in life. I have learnt a lot from him in the past four years and hope to continue learning more.”
On the world stage
Ever since, he has been training seriously, often flying to peaks and summits around the world. Alpine skiing can be an incredibly technical sport, with a focus on precise turns and agility, over sheer speed. It also requires sportspeople to be extremely fit, to minimise risk of injury.
So, Astridge has to make time for training in different courses around the world. He spends three continuous months in South America every summer, and travels back and forth between Dubai and Europe every two to three weeks for the rest of the season.
There are “a lot of back-and-forth flights… I remember one weekend, my sister and I did a weekend trip to compete in a championship in Italy, and were back in school by Monday. That was pretty intense”. When he is in the UAE, Astridge always utilises Ski Dubai. Even today, he said: “I am there at least twice a week.”
The biggest casualty of his busy travel schedule has been his school attendance. Astridge studied at Repton School Dubai from age four until he graduated. He is now majoring in international business management, and attends Herriot Watt University Dubai… when he is able to.
Astridge said: “I think towards the end of my school years, my attendance was less than 50%, but I got by. Not with the best grades, but I still passed. And now with university, I don’t even want to know what my attendance is. But Heriot Watt has always ensured that I am comfortable and ready for any exams or coursework – always adjusting dates to meet my demanding needs due to alpine skiing.”
As his training continued, Astridge attended sporting events around the world. At the 2024 Youth Olympics opening ceremony in South Korea, he had an epiphany. He said: “The moment when I realised [skiing] is something I really want to do was at the opening ceremony, where I was flag-bearing. It was a moment which lit a fire in me and something I will never be able to forget.”
Making history
Since then, his proudest moment has been qualifying for this year’s Winter Olympics. Although he could not finish his run in the men’s slalom competition, because of tough conditions, he was part of the first-ever team to compete for the UAE.
He said: “To represent the UAE is surreal. Regardless of what nationality runs in my blood, Dubai is the only place I’ve ever called and seen as my home. It’s where I have done everything in my life. And to be able to bring the UAE to an international stage in winter sports is so surreal to me, especially since I was the first to do so. It gave me the opportunity to show all the kids at home that it isn’t just a fairy tale ‘dream’ but a real possibility.”
For now, Astridge is taking it one day at a time. He recently underwent a medial patellofemoral ligament reconstruction for his knee, and has to ice it regularly. He has had his fair share of injuries over the years – most notably in 2022, when he suffered multiple fractures to his tibia after a crash. It took five months of treatment and recovery for him to get back on his skis, and even longer mentally, to get back in the zone.
Thankfully, he has had plenty of help in Dubai to get him through. Astridge said: “The support has been incredible – not just financially but mentally. I have always been propped up by the people around me to be my best self and never pressured for results. I’ve never seen support this good anywhere else in the world.”
Soon, he will be ready to meet the next challenge. He has a busy season ahead, with the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, FIS World Junior Ski Championships and the International University Sports Federation (FISU) Winter World University Games. Astridge said: “I am extremely excited! With this [ligament reconstruction] surgery, I finally feel ‘whole’ again, so to speak. If the support around me continues the way it has, I don’t see any reason why my progression would stop, especially in the UAE, where nothing feels impossible.”