By Jennifer Porter Gore, Word In Black
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.
They also saw a considerable number of Team USA’s 232 Black members, and two-time Olympian Erin Jackson of Ocala, FL, was one of the flag bearers in the Parade of Nations.
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, events that white athletes from Nordic countries have long dominated.
Black athletes from outside the U.S. are also making an impressive showing. Stevenson Savart made history on Feb 8 when he became the first man to represent Haiti in cross-country skiing at the Winter Games. He’d also served as Haiti’s flagbearer before making his Olympic debut in the men’s skiathlon.
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.
Eight countries from the Motherland — nations better known for beaches, tropical climates, savannas and deserts — have a total of 14 African athletes competing at this year’s 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’s largest delegation, with five athletes.
U.S. Athletes
Speed Skating
Erin Jackson, 33, Ocala, Florida
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’s 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—as well as roller derby—for Team USA in 2018. In 2022, Jackson became the first Black woman to win a Gold medal during the Olympics held in Beijing.
Ice Hockey
Laila Edwards, 22, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Edwards made history by becoming the first Black woman to compete in an Olympic ice hockey tournament for the United States. The 22-year-old collected her first point in the 5-1 win over Czechia at the games.
Despite other women like Blake Bolden and Laila’s older sister Chayla being part of the USA Hockey Development Program, none were tapped to represent the senior women’s team in international competition.
Skeleton
Mystique Ro, 31, Nokesville, Virginia
The second oldest of 11 children, Ro competed in track and field at 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 Bobsled/Skeleton team training camp in 2016. Deemed “a little small” for bobsled, coaches suggested she try skeleton — 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 U.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 Austin Florian.
Bobsleigh/Bobsled
Elana Meyers Taylor, 41, Douglasville, Georgia
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. Her two young sons, Nico and Noah, will be watching her from the stands.
Kaysha Love, 28, Salt Lake City/Herriman, Utah
Love comes from a family of athletes: several of her immediate family members played either collegiate-level basketball or volleyball. 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 University 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 Kaillie Humphries. In 2023, she became a sled pilot, and in her second full season was the monobob world champion.
Azaria Hill, 27, Santa Clarita, California
Hill comes from a family of athletes — she’s 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’s parents met at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, where her aunt, Sherri Howard, won gold with Hill’s mom in the women’s 4x400m relay.
Jasmine Jones, 29, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
A standout high school athlete in basketball and 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’s bobsled team.
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.
Bryan Sosoo, 29, Laurel, Maryland
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’s track team until 2024, when he switched to bobsled and joined the U.S. national team.
This editorial was originally published in Word In Black.
