\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
The 2026 Winter Olympics has seen a significant number of Black athletes from around the world competing in events that have traditionally been dominated by white athletes from Nordic countries. Erin Jackson, a speedskater and two-time Olympian, is one of the flag bearers for Team USA in the Parade of Nations. Laila Edwards made history as the first Black woman to compete in an Olympic ice hockey tournament for the United States. Eight African countries have a total of 14 athletes competing in this year’s Winter Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
When the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony kicked off on Feb. 6, some 3 billion viewers around the world watched nearly 2,900 athletes from 92 countries participate in the Parade of Nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also saw a considerable number of Team USA\u2019s 232 Black members, and two-time Olympian Erin Jackson of Ocala, FL, was one of the flag bearers in the Parade of Nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A speedskater, Jackson won a Gold medal in 2022 and is looking to repeat her performance in Milan. She is just one of several barrier-breaking Black athletes competing on ice and in snow,\u00a0 events that white athletes from Nordic countries have long dominated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Black athletes from outside the U.S. are also making an impressive showing. Stevenson Savart made history on Feb 8 when he became the\u00a0first man to represent<\/a>\u00a0Haiti in cross-country skiing at the Winter Games. He\u2019d also served as Haiti\u2019s flagbearer before making his Olympic debut in the men\u2019s skiathlon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although he crossed the finish line in 64th place, the fans cheered him on, and he took a bow. Savart grew up in the Vosges region of France, where he learned to ski as a child. He made his World Cup debut in January 2023 and has represented Haiti at the 2023 and 2025 World Championships.<\/p>\n Eight countries from the Motherland \u2014 nations better known for beaches, tropical climates, savannas and deserts \u2014\u00a0 have a total of 14 African athletes competing at this year\u2019s Winter Olympic Games. Benin, Guinea. Bissau, Nigeria, and Eritrea will each be represented by one athlete. Madagascar, Morocco, and Kenya will field two athletes apiece, while South Africa will have the continent\u2019s largest delegation, with five athletes.<\/p>\n U.S. Athletes<\/p>\n Speed skating<\/p>\n Erin Jackson, 33, Ocala, Florida Ice Hockey<\/p>\n Laila Edwards, 22,\u00a0Cleveland Heights, Ohio Despite other women like\u00a0Blake Bolden\u00a0and Laila\u2019s older sister\u00a0Chayla being part of the USA Hockey Development Program, none were tapped to represent the senior women\u2019s team in international competition.<\/p>\n Skeleton<\/p>\n Mystique Ro, 31,\u00a0Nokesville, Virginia Bobsleigh\/Bobsled<\/p>\n Elana Meyers Taylor, 41, Douglasville, Georgia Kaysha Love, 28, Salt Lake City\/Herriman, Utah Azaria Hill, 27, Santa Clarita, California Jasmine Jones, 29,\u00a0Greensburg, Pennsylvania Five years later, Jones competed at the 2023 World Championships in 2-woman bobsled. Three years after that, Jones won her first IBSF World Cup race as the push athlete for Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, a three-time Olympic gold medalist.<\/p>\n Bryan Sosoo, 29, Laurel, Maryland
Although Jackson competes in a winter sport, she began inline skating after her mother happened to meet Renee Hildebrand, a well-known inline skating coach. Jackson joined Hilderbrand\u2019s team, which also included Brittany Bowe and Joey Mantia, her Team USA speed skating teammates. She became the junior inline skating champion at age 17 in the 500-meter event and competed in the same sport\u2014as well as roller derby\u2014for Team USA in 2018. In 2022, Jackson became the first Black woman to win a Gold medal during the Olympics held in Beijing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Edwards<\/a>\u00a0made history by becoming the first Black woman to compete in an Olympic\u00a0ice hockey\u00a0tournament for the United States. The 22-year-old collected her first point in the\u00a05-1 win over Czechia<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second oldest of 11 children, Ro competed in\u00a0track and field\u00a0at Queen College in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her events include the hurdles, sprints, javelin and heptathlon. She became an Olympian after being invited to the USA\u00a0Bobsled\/Skeleton team training camp in 2016. Deemed \u201ca little small\u201d for bobsled, coaches suggested she try skeleton \u2014 a single-person sled that can reach 80 mph rocketing down an icy track. After debuting on the international circuit in 2023, the next year Ro became the first\u00a0U.S. athlete in eight years to win a skeleton race on the World Cup circuit. A year later, she became the first American to medal in the World Cup in more than a decade, winning gold in the mixed team skeleton event with\u00a0Austin Florian.<\/p>\n
A five-time medalist, Meyers Taylor is the most decorated Black Winter Olympian and has a chance to add to her three silver and two bronze medals when she hits the track at Cortina Sliding Centre.\u00a0Her two young sons, Nico and Noah, will be watching her from the stands.<\/p>\n
Love comes from a family of athletes: several of her immediate family members played either collegiate-level basketball\u00a0or\u00a0volleyball. As a child, Love was a gymnast before injuries forced her to give up the sport in high school. She went on to excel in track and field, was a star sprinter at the\u00a0University of Nevada, Las Vegas and was invited to USA Bobsled camp in October 2020. Sixteen months later, Love made her Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games, where she finished seventh in 2-woman bobsled as a push athlete for\u00a0Kaillie Humphries. In 2023, she became a sled pilot, and in her second full season was the monobob world champion.<\/p>\n
Hill comes from a family of athletes \u2014 she\u2019s the daughter of three-time Olympic medalist Denean Howard-Hill, a sprinter, and her father is Virgil Hill Sr., a Hall of Fame boxer who won a silver medal in the sport. In fact, Hill\u2019s parents met at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, where her aunt, Sherri Howard, won gold with Hill\u2019s mom in the women\u2019s 4x400m relay.<\/p>\n
A standout\u00a0high school athlete in basketball\u00a0and track, Jones was a sprinter for Eastern Michigan University, where her strength coach nominated her for All-American honors. The nomination caught the attention of Elana Meyers, a five-time Olympic medalist, who encouraged Jones to try out for the U.S. women\u2019s bobsled team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Ghanian-American, Sosoo was a star track and field athlete who was Maryland state high school champion in the indoor 55-meter dash and triple jump. At Monmouth University, he set the school record and won three conference titles in the 60 meter dash, also indoors. After getting his degree, Sosoo competed internationally for Ghana\u2019s track team until 2024, when he switched to\u00a0bobsled and joined the U.S. national team.<\/p>\n