YANQING, China — Just as it was becoming clear that Sheina Vaspi had the talent and drive to compete internationally, she faced a difficult choice.

Her athletic passion — or her religion. Ski racing or her skirt.

“The person who told her that was me,” said Inbal Pezaro, Vaspi’s friend, mentor and occasional interpreter.

Pezaro, a former Paralympic swimmer, knew from her racing days that the governing bodies of international sports are often strict about uniforms. Pezaro feared her friend would not be allowed to compete while still adhering to her faith.

But Vaspi did not despair. A member of the Chabad movement of Judaism, she is compelled to wears a skirt for religious reasons. Nevertheless, she had faith that all would work out. And it did.

No one prohibited the skirt, and Vaspi raced with it over her ski suit, making remarkable strides in only a few years of training.

In China this week, Vaspi faced a similar decision, one she did not know she would encounter until after she had already traveled thousands of miles to China for the quadrennial event. But this time, when forced to choose between her religion and the glory of competing in the Winter Paralympics, she was forced to give one up.

Vaspi had qualified for two events at the Games, the women’s giant slalom and the slalom. But when projected bad weather forced race organizers to move Sunday’s scheduled slalom race to Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, Vaspi dropped out (She also had to skip the lavish opening ceremony the previous Friday night, which fell after sundown, the beginning of the Sabbath.)

She said she actually pondered what was once unthinkable for her, breaking ritual to race on the sabbath. Her father left the decision to her. She chose her faith, but it was not easy.

“Of course, I am upset,” she said on Friday. “It was really hard for me to do this because I really wanted it. I trained hard for the slalom. Maybe it was God’s decision.”

But Vaspi still made history. On Friday, she became the first Israeli to compete in the Winter Paralympic Games when she competed in the women’s giant slalom. She overcame an injury from a fall the day before to in finish 15th place on her one ski, wearing her small skirt over her ski uniform, with a word printed on it that had never been seen before in that way at the Winter Paralympics: “Israel.”

“It is very important for me to represent my country the best I can,” she said, “especially because I did not go into the army. My grandfather died in one of the wars that Israel had and my uncle fell in one of the wars, too. I feel very, very proud to be the first Israeli to represent the country in the Paralympics.”

Military service is compulsory in Israel, but Vaspi was excused because she lost a leg in a car accident when she was 10. She said that perhaps the attention she will garner from competing in the Beijing Games will open the gates for other Israeli athletes, many who never considered the possibility of competing until her breakthrough.

Though Vaspi has generated great interest in Israel (her two runs on Friday were broadcast live), this is not her first brush with fame. When she was a child, her family was chosen to participate in a home makeover reality TV show. Most people are not aware she is the same girl from the show.

“People have forgotten about it,” she said with a laugh. “It was a really fun experience, But I was very young.”

Vaspi, 20, grew up in the north of Israel, where skiing is a rare adventure for a lucky few, available on one mountain for two or three weeks a year, depending on the weather. As a girl, she could see Mount Hermon from her home, but never dreamed of skiing it.

But then one day, when she was 15, the Erez Foundation, which assists soldiers and children with special needs with learning adaptive activities, invited her to ski. Vaspi was uncertain about accepting, until her father, a farmer, religious teacher and tour guide in Africa, showed her a video of people doing “crazy things” on the slopes.

“I said, ‘Yes, I want that,’” Vaspi said in English.

She took to the slopes like a native Vermont ski bird, exhibiting enough promise that she convinced the Erez Foundation volunteers, like Pezaro, to invest in her potential. They loved that Vaspi wanted to be on the mountain no matter how miserable the conditions were — and they noticed something else.

“She wasn’t scared of speed, at all,” said Pezaro, who helped teach Vaspi to ski. “We thought she had potential. And Sheina was a bit lost in her Israeli life. I knew from my experience as an athlete, that it could be so meaningful to get into a program that will demand discipline doing what you love.”

Vaspi traveled to the slopes of Europe when Mount Hermon was bare, and then spent a month in Banff, Canada, for high-level training. But a broken bone in her amputated leg interrupted that trip, and she returned to Israel, still with the hope of going back to Banff after she recovered. That was only two years into her skiing career, but then the pandemic struck, and Canada was no longer an option.

So, instead, Vaspi traveled to the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Winter Park, Colo., to train with Scott Olson. She began competing in races, and she did surprisingly well for someone of her limited experience, all the while observing the rules of her faith, including wearing her skirt. She even started a new trend at Winter Park.

The para ski team from Chile was training at Winter Park as well, and one of the Chilean coach’s daughters loved Vaspi’s skirt. One day, the girl wore one of her own on the slopes and presented Vaspi with a drawing she had made of her, with Vaspi’s fiery red hair flowing behind her as she raced down the mountain in a skirt.

Vaspi continued to observe the Sabbath, which meant that during the recent World Para Snow Sports Championships in Lillehammer, Norway, she had to skip two Saturday races.

“I am so proud of her,” her father, Einav, said in a recorded message sent from Israel after hearing that his daughter would not race on the Sabbath in China. “You train two and a half years for this day and it’s really difficult. But it is above us. It is the weather and God. The Paralympics and Shabbat together. Shabbat is bigger.”

At least Vaspi was able to race on Friday, completing her historic run while wearing the slightly noticeable skirt, which is made from the same sleek material as her suit. But for some racers who are obsessed with shaving hundredths of seconds off their times, it would be inconceivable to wear anything that could create wind drag.

Vaspi acknowledged that she is not accomplished enough to worry over the hundredths of a second that she may lose with the skirt, at least not yet. She said there is more value in wearing it, and making a statement for all faiths.

“I believe it can show all the religious people they can enjoy both worlds,” she said. “They can keep their belief and also do things that are important in their lives.”

Perhaps one day those microseconds will matter. With a little more than two years of competitive training, Vaspi’s aspirations at these Games were modest. But considering her stunning improvement in such a short time, one can only imagine what she would be able to do at the 2026 Winter Paralympics.

“Being so new to it, we’re not looking for a gold medal here,” Olson, her coach, said. “But the next games, that’s where she can make a mark. She has so much desire and is just willing to let it rip. She is power on one leg.”