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Harley Windsor hopes he has become a "role model" for young Indigenous Australians after making his Olympic Winter Games debut alongside Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya in the figure skating in Pyeongchang.
Windsor became the first Indigenous Australian to take part at the Olympic Winter Games when he and Alexandrovskaya finished in 18th place in the pairs short program at the Gangneung Ice Arena on Wednesday.
The Australians, who skated second among the 22 pairs, posted a score of 61.55, just off their season's best, and missed qualifying for Thursday's free skate by two places.
The 21-year-old Windsor, who grew up in Sydney's west, admitted he was proud to be a trailblazer among the Indigenous Australian community after making his Olympic debut.
"The attention has been amazing and I just hope I'll be a bit of a role model now," he told the Australian Olympic Committee's website.
"Hopefully more Indigenous kids get into winter sports."
Photo:
Harley Windsor (R) and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya perform their routine. (AP: Bernat Armangue)
Windsor was watched on by his mother Josie in the stands and he said he was humbled by the encouragement he had received ahead of performing with Alexandrovskaya in Pyeongchang.
"It felt good to have the support," Windsor said.
"It's pretty special knowing so many people were cheering me on."
China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong topped the short program with a score of 82.39, just ahead of Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (81.68), who are representing Olympic Athletes from Russia.
Topics: figure-skating, sport, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, community-and-society, korea-republic-of
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