With his participation today, Friday, in the Milan Cortina Games, Lebanese skater “Samer Tawk” returns to the Olympic arena and is not just a name on the list of participants. It is a return that represents a new chapter in a journey that began in PyeongChang 2018, and was interrupted by an accident that almost ended everything, before it was rewritten with determination, patience, and determination to recover.
Lebanon, which is participating in this tournament with a small delegation consisting of two athletes, today focuses its attention on the men’s cross-country skiing race for a distance of 10 km freestyle, where “Touq” is competing, while the skier “Andrea Al-Hayek” is waiting for his participation in Al-Salloum on February 16. The presence is small in number, but it carries great meaning, especially since one of its heroes returned from a long injury journey.
The story of “Tawq” is unique for two reasons. The first is purely athletic, as his previous participation in the 2018 Olympics established his position as a prominent name in Lebanese cross-country skiing, which is a difficult discipline that is not widespread in the Arab world, and relies heavily on endurance and discipline more than showmanship.
The second reason is purely humanitarian. In 2019, “Tawk” fell from a height of 14 meters while training in the mountains of Lebanon, which put him on a long treatment course between surgeries, recovery and rehabilitation, before he gradually returned to the snow and then to competition, all the way to regaining his Olympic ticket again. This is what makes his participation today more like a final test for years of hard and silent work, and not just a “transient participation” in the season schedule.
In this particular race, Tawq does not need to “win a medal” for his comeback to be significant. It is enough for him to stand today on the starting line on behalf of Lebanon in Tsiro, in the 10 km freestyle race, to confirm that the greatest challenge has already been undertaken off the track, in the treatment and rehabilitation rooms, and in his decision to continue despite the pain and despite the financial challenges facing winter sports in a country suffering from crises.
Thus, Samer Tawk’s participation in Milano Cortina 2026 is a moment in which sport meets in the true sense. Lebanon may not have a large delegation or wide media coverage like major countries, but today it has a poignant and direct story, the story of an athlete who returned after a forced absence, and tests himself before the world again on the snow, where there is no place except for those who decide to continue until the end.
