Chisholm College student Alex Myint has last week had the honour of receiving the Olympic flag, after professionally competing in last year’s Youth Olympic Games in the sport of Roller Speed Skating.
The flag was presented by ex-student and Olympian Jesse Phillips.
The Youth Olympic Games were last year held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 6 to 18 October 2018, with some 4,000 Athletes aged 15-18 years old from 206 countries competing in 32 sports.
Australia was represented by 88 athletes competing in 26 sports, claiming 16 individual and five mixed international medals.
As recognition of Alex’s achievement, Jesse Phillips came to present an Olympic Flag to the College on behalf of the Australian Olympic Committee.
Jesse competed at the 2012 London Olympic Games in the sport of Sprint Kayak and is a five-time National Champion in the Men’s Kayak doubles 200m.
In his speech to fellow students, Alex explained that one of his lasting memories from his time at the Youth Olympic Games is meeting athletes from Australia and other countries.
“I engaged talking to them about their training and seeing how dedicated and passionate they were for their sport,” Alex said.
“This touched me deeply to share the same beliefs and attitudes as they did.
“I enjoyed using the device called ‘Yogger’ which was given to us to exchange information and enable us to keep in contact with each other.”
In the context of Year 12 students nearly finishing their secondary schooling, Alex went on to share his favourite quote – ‘Every time you fail don’t take it as a defeat, but take it as a lesson to learn from so you can come back stronger’.
Several other students reported to the school that they found his journey inspiring.
In July this year, Alex will travel to Spain to compete in the World Roller Games, which will be held in Barcelona.
The games are held every two years and include 11 disciplines of various roller sports. Alex will be competing in the Junior Men Speed Skating races on the banked track, road track, and in the Open Men’s 42 km marathon.