Slowly but Surely, Black History
Is Written in Snow

The Winter Olympics have historically been a white-out in more ways than one, but black athletes are slowly making their mark on the world-class snow and ice. Check out our five most important moments in black Winter Olympics history. E-mail us if you think we missed one.



1. Vonetta Flowers Wins Gold
Salt Lake City, 2002

The first gold medal ever won by an African American in the Winter Olympics couldn't have gone to a more unlikely recipient. Consider that she was a woman and that women's bobsledding made its debut at these 2002 Games; consider that she was an ex-track star at her hometown school of Alabama-Birmingham who didn't pursue the bobsled until her husband persuaded in 2000 and consider that two months before the Olympics she did not have a driver for her sled: After she helped Bonnie Warner qualify for the Olympics in 2001, Warner bucked Flowers as her brakeman, instead opting for Gea Johnson's sled. Despite not participating in the latter half of the World Cup season, Flowers' strong performance earned her a spot on the USA-2 sled, driven by Jill Baaken. Still, the pair only managed a fifth-place finish the weekend prior to the Olympics and entered Salt Lake City as heavy underdogs to Jean Racine's USA-1. But the Flowers team blistered the course record on the first run and held on for the gold medal, earning this star a most unique achievement.

2. Tai Babilonia Becomes First Black Winter Olympian
Innsbruck, 1976
More than a half century after the Winter Olympics began, Babilonia finally broke through as the first athlete of African ancestry to compete. Just 16, the pairs figure skater of Filipino, Hopi Indian and African heritage teamed up with Randy Gardner at the Innsbruck games to form one of America’s most memorable on-ice duos. Her performance was as admirable as it was groundbreaking; the pair skated to a fifth place finish and laid the groundwork for what should’ve been a coronation at the 1980 games. Coached by Mabel Fairbanks, the matriarch of black figure skating, the duo won five straight U.S. Championships from 1976-1980 and the world championship in 1979. But a groin injury to Gardner forced the pair to withdraw, leaving the title of first black medalist unclaimed for another eight years.

3. Debi Thomas Wins Bronze
Calgary, 1988
After a 1984 Olympic Games without a single black competitor, Thomas followed up the promise Babilonia was unable to fulfill. Though she would be popularly remembered for her fall to start her final routine in Calgary, the pre-med student from Stanford was simply historic during her time on the ice in 1988. A world champion in 1986 (the only black figure skater to this day to hold such an honor), Thomas entered the '88 games with the support of the nation. She skated well, but not well enough to topple Katarina Witt, who claimed gold. Thomas earned a bronze medal, which had seemed completely unlikely for a black athlete just a few years before.

4. Jarome Iginla Leads Canada to Gold
Salt Lake City, 2002
It was exactly 50 years since Canada's last Olympic gold medal in hockey when Iginla and Team Canada took the ice against Team USA in the 2002 gold medal game. Two big Iginla goals guaranteed that streak wouldn't last another day. The most explosive goal-scorer in the NHL in 2002, Iginla led the second all-pro Canadian team to the gold medal the first had so miserably failed to capture. Iginla banged home the second goal of the game and capped off the 5-2 win with a second as the Canadians snapped Team USA's 70-year home-ice win streak and finally brought gold back to the birthplace of hockey. The son of a black Nigerian father and white Canadian mother, Iginla used the 2002 games to improve his standing from superstar to national icon.

5. Jamaican Bobsled Team Debuts
Calgary, 1988
Sure, they sounded like a punchline on the order of submarine screen doors, but the unlikely media darlings of the 1988 Olympics proved an important historical turning point for blacks in the Olympics. While their Calgary runs would be plagued by crashes and technical difficulties (their final-run crash would serve as climax to the Disney comedy-drama 'Cool Runnings'), their explosive start times forced the world to take notice. Constituted primarily of former sprinters, the Jamaican team showed just how effective track stars could be as pushers as they outpaced the start times of many better-established programs. While a handful of crossover stars appeared in the bobsled events before those Calgary games, the success of the West Indian nation (particularly its 14th place finish in 1992, ahead of both American sleds), opened the flood gates for the slew of track stars who routinely now compete on the bobsled circuit. Due in no small part to the success of the Jamaicans, former track star Vonetta Flowers became the first black athlete to win a gold medal in 2002, and ex-track stars Randy Jones, Garrett Hines and Bill Schuffenhaur gave the United States its first bobsled medal in 46 years, turning the United States from perennial also-ran to legitimate contender with world powers Germany and Switzerland.