From poverty to peak performance

More than 70 years ago, Tashi Wangdrak was a young Tibetan serf, born into a world where freedom was unimaginable. He never thought he would live beyond middle age, and certainly never imagined that, one day, a descendant of his would compete at the Winter Olympics.

This February, his granddaughter Cidan Yuzhen raced on the snow of the Italian Alps at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics in ski mountaineering — a sport returning to the Olympic program after more than a century.

The 19-year-old's participation marked the pinnacle of a family journey that spans three generations, from the rigid confines of feudal serfdom to the global stage of competitive sport.

Bound by servitude

Tashi Wangdrak grew up in Chanang county. In old Xizang, nearly all Tibetans were serfs under a feudal system controlled by aristocrats, government officials and senior lamas. Serfs were considered property of manor owners rather than individuals, obliged to work long hours and pay burdensome taxes.

"I spent my childhood sewing clothes with my mother in a shed meant for livestock," Tashi Wangdrak recalled decades later.

"Even the food we ate had to be rationed carefully. There was no freedom, no future we could plan for ourselves."

The obligations were crushing. Many serfs tried to escape, risking brutal punishment, or even death, if caught. Tashi Wangdrak and his mother decided to flee. They wandered through snow and hunger, finally reaching Rirong township in Luntse county, where they found temporary refuge.

There, he met Chodron, a young woman who had also escaped servitude.

They married and began to rebuild their lives, though poverty remained a constant companion.

Everything changed in March 1959, when the democratic reform swept Xizang, abolishing feudal serfdom and ushering in a new era of freedom.

These reforms allowed Tashi Wangdrak and his wife to raise children free from the bonds of servitude — the first generation of their family born with personal freedom.

"We were allocated land of our own," he said. "For the first time, I had a home of my own."

From plateau to city

Life in Rirong, perched over 4,000 meters above sea level, remained physically demanding and economically limited.

Tashi Wangdrak and his children depended largely on livestock herding, one of the few ways to survive on the harsh Tibetan Plateau.

Cidan Yuzhen was born in 2006. Unlike her grandparents, she had access to formal education, yet the rhythm of her family's life was still dictated by the mountains. She herded sheep and worked the fields, but her aspirations stretched far beyond the plateau.

"I wanted to be a physical education teacher," she recalled. "I wanted to see the world."

She was selected by a sports school from Shannan city and accepted the offer without hesitation, even before asking her parents for permission.

"I didn't know what it meant to leave," she said. "I just wanted to experience something new."

"I hoped she could fly out of the mountains and see the world," her mother said.

At just 10 years old, Cidan Yuzhen became the first member of her family to leave their rural village.

She traveled for hours along winding mountain roads to Shannan to embrace formal athletic training.