There’s a stereotype that people of African descent aren’t interested in Winter Olympic sports. There some some barriers to entry for us which include access to the special equipment needed to participate in some of these sports plus living near enough to places with enough snow etc.

I’ve been snowboarding (once) but it was super-fun. And if you’ve got the right clothes on, you’re not cold at all. I’d like to see more blacks in the Winter Olympics in the future as more access & opportunity opens up. It’s up to the U.S. Olympic Committee to prioritize recruitment of winter athletes of diverse backgrounds. That’s the way to keep dominating the Olympics since let’s face it, America’s demographics are changing. If you expect us to be interested, you have to include us. Booker Rising has a nice roundup of black athletes from the top scoring nations: U.S., Germany & Canada. Here’s a slice:

Booker Rising has been highlighting the 20 (partially) black athletes competing in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. I feel like a broken record here, but I can’t believe the media (especially black-oriented media) has not picked up on the fact that two out of every five of the (partially) black athletes at this year’s Games – which closes this evening – are going home with nine combined medals. This is historic. Granted, black Americans haven’t been watching these Games according to Nielsen ratings, but come now. So Booker Rising will highlight the Black Ice medalists to honor their achievements. The Canadians in particular stepped it up:

Richard Adjei, Germany (pictured left), silver medalist in the two-man bobsled


Lascelles Brown, Canada (pictured far left), bronze medalist in the four-man bobsled


Shelley-Ann Brown, Canada (pictured right; no relation to Lascelles Brown), silver medalist in the two-woman bobsled


Shani Davis, USA, gold medalist in long track 1,000-meter speedskating. Chicago, baby, yeah!

(more on Booker Rising)

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