An East Timorese skier has qualified to represent his tiny nation at the Winter Olympics in Russia.

Yohan Goutt Goncalves, 19, was born in France but has an East Timorese mother and dual citizenship.

He has qualified to compete in the Slalom event and is East Timor's first competitor at a Winter Olympics.

He told Radio Australia that when he told his East Timorese relatives last year that he wanted to carry the national flag at the Olympics at Sochi, "everybody thought it was a joke and they wouldn't really believe me".

Bill Zamut from the Australian Timor Leste Winter Olympic Association says Goutt Goncalves is also the first East Timorese person to qualify in his own right as an Olympic athlete.

"Normally, smaller countries like this they get wild cards and they are allowed in," he said.

"But he refused to accept the wild card and wanted to qualify in his own right, as an individual, and not be granted any special status."

Goutt Goncalves lives in France most of the year but makes an annual visit to East Timor to see relatives.

He told Radio Australia that East Timor had shaped who he is.

"My mum brought me up with a Timorese way of thinking, so it has given me a lot of heritage and, of course, Timorese blood as well," he said.

Mr Zamut says Goutt Goncalves sees the experience as an opportunity to be an ambassador for the country.

"He believes that the world has a very negative attitudes about East Timor because of the war, and because it is the world's second most poorest country," he said.

"Something like 50 per cent of the population are illiterate, 40 per cent live below the poverty line and he thinks this is a great opportunity to get positive information out and improve the image of Timor Leste."

Goutt Goncalves is in Iran preparing for the Olympics.