LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — When USA Bobsled and Skeleton unveils its Olympic rosters, the most likely scenario is that either eight or nine women will wind up competing for that federation on the ice at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.
Most of those sliders will almost certainly be women of color. By the time the Games open, this could be the most diverse U.S.
Olympic winter roster ever assembled. The 2018 U.S. roster for the 2018 Games included 21 athletes of either Black or Asian descent, about 8% of the total; the 2026 team could top that number. There is still obvious potential for far more growth on the diversity front, but some athletes feel that steps are being taken in the right direction.
“We’re really doing this,” said U.S. skeleton athlete Mystique Ro, a woman of Black and Korean descent and someone who teamed with Austin Florian to win last year’s world championship in the sport’s mixed event. “The train has left the station. We’re going. And it’s such a surreal feeling. … We’re really making history out here and it’s not slowing down at all.”
People of color fill the rosters for non-traditional winter sports nations like Jamaica but most of the dominant teams from European powers — and, to be fair, the U.S. as well — are almost entirely white. Still, some of the top American medal hopefuls at these Olympics will be Black women, and that’s not exactly a new phenomenon — especially in bobsled.