Kosovo dentist hits the slopes at Winter Olympics
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 14th February 2018
Albin Tahiri, a recently graduated dentist, has just become the first athlete from Kosovo to compete in the Winter Olympics.
Tahiri took part in the mens ski slalom, where many seasoned professionals crashed out, yet Albin Tahiri finished the course at 37th place.
He told Reuters: “It was really icy, so I had a lot of problems, but when I saw the other guys fall out, I decided just to finish it because it’s our first race and I wanted to finish my first competition at the Olympics. ”
Despite his dream to be in the Winter Olympics, Tahiri retains that dentistry – specifically oral surgery – is his passion.
He trains in dentistry mostly in Austria, Italy and Slovenia, due to lack of facilities in Kosovo.
Tahiri has been waiting to compete in the Winter Olympics due to Kosovo only being recognised across the International Olympic Committee four years ago. After taking part in five individual mens skiing events at the Olympics, he will head home and finish off his internship in a dental practice.
He added: “During these years that I’ve been waiting for Kosovo to become an Olympic family, I just simply decided not to wait and to study instead – so I graduated in dentistry, which was my passion.
“I just graduated now, I have one more year of internship and then I‘m thinking about full-mouth reconstruction with implants and so on, something like that, a bit of oral surgery, a bit of prosthetics.
‘Maybe I’ll fix some things from the skiers… no, I’m just kidding.’
