Black Winter Olympic Games Athletes: Past and present

Elana Meyers Taylor became the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympic history at Beijing 2022.

The Team USA bobsleigh star won silver in the inaugural women's monobob before the pilot claimed bronze with brakewoman Sylvia Hoffman in the two-woman bobsled.

With her two medals from Beijing 2022, Meyers Taylor now has five across four Olympic Winter Games, more than any other Black athlete.

The 37-year-old paid tribute to those who paved the way, telling Olympics.com: "There's a lot of people that came before me. Vonetta Flowers is the reason I'm here, and (speed skater) Shani Davis, and even Erin Jackson [500m speed skating gold medallist in Beijing].

"It's just been such a long legacy of Black athletes at the Winter Olympics and hopefully it just continues."

We look at the history and impact made by Black athletes in Olympic Winter Games history.

Vonetta Flowers

Flowers was a sprinter and long jumper at the University of Alabama who hung up her spikes after missing selection to the Summer Games at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.

She participated in a bobsleigh tryout event and two years later became the first Black athlete to win Winter Olympics gold at Salt Lake City 2002 with Jill Bakken in the two-woman bobsled.

Flowers was unaware of the magnitude of her achievement at the time, telling Team USA: “I honestly had no idea! All I wanted to do was live out a childhood dream of winning a medal for Team USA."

She hopes that others will follow her path and points to the USOPC’s FLAME (Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere) Program, which is designed to inspire undergraduate and graduate students of color to pursue careers within the Olympic and Paralympic movements.

What needs to be done to recruit athletes with a diverse background is to “identify which skills it takes to be successful and offer opportunities for kids to explore new sports,” she said.

Debra Thomas

Debra Thomas - known as Debi - was the first Black athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics when she claimed figure skating bronze at Calgary 1988.

The USA athlete won another bronze medal at the 1988 World Championships before retiring from skating.

Thomas then went on to study medicine and practices in central Illinois, USA.

Shani Davis

Shani Davis was the first Black athlete to win individual gold when he claimed the speed skating 1000m title at Turin 2006, while also taking silver over 1500m.

He replicated those results at Vancouver 2010 where he became the first athlete to claim gold in the 1000m at successive Games.

Davis retired in late 2019 after competing in four Olympic Winter Games winning four medals**.**

Simidele Adeagbo

Simidele Adeagbo was the first African woman and first Black female athlete to compete in the skeleton at the Winter Olympics, finishing 20th at PyeongChang 2018.

Adeagbo was also - along with the women's bobsleigh team - the first athlete to represent Nigeria at an Olympic Winter Games.

With victory in the monobob at the Europa Cup in Winterberg, Germany, in January 2022, Adeagbo became the first African athlete to win an international bobsled race.

Erin Jackson

Erin Jackson made history as the first Black woman to win an individual speed skating gold when she claimed the 500m title at Beijing 2022.

Four years earlier she became the first African-American woman to be selected to the USA speed skating team for PyeongChang 2018.

Akwasi Frimpong

Akwasi Frimpong was the first Ghanaian athlete to compete in skeleton when he took to the track at PyeongChang 2018.

He was also the second Ghanaian to participate at the Olympic Winter Games, finishing 30th four years ago.

Team Jamaica

Team Jamaica competed in both the men's and women's events at Beijing 2022.

Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian was the only woman on the team and finished 19th in the women's monobob at her third Olympic Winter Games, eight years after her debut at Sochi 2014 where she was 10th in the two-woman bobsleigh.

Shanwayne Stephens, Nimroy Turgott, Rolando Reid and Ashley Watson competed in the two and four-man boblseigh in which they finished 28th and 30th respectively, 34 years after Jamaica's bobsleigh pioneers competed at Calgary 1988.

That in turn inspired 'Cool Runnings', the Hollywood film loosely based on their journey and whose legacy lives on today.

Stephens, who piloted both the two-man and four-man bobsleigh, told Olympics.com, "A big part of us being here is just to show people that you can achieve anything that you want to achieve if you just put your mind to it and go out there and do it.

"Winning a medal isn't there for us, not yet, not right now, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be.

"Our plan is to build on this programme moving forward, getting more and more Jamaican athletes involved in the sport."