Black Olympic skiers offer hope, share plans for more diverse future of Winter Games
BEIJING — Richardson Viano is a first and an anomaly.
As a Black skier who competed in the Beijing Olympics, the 19-year-old became the first athlete to represent his birth country, Haiti, at the Winter Games.
Adopted at age 3 by an Italian family who lived in the French Alps, Viano’s father – a ski instructor – put him on skis almost immediately. Over the next 16 years, skiing became his passion.
“It’s a great pleasure,” Viano told Paste BN Sports about his Olympic debut. “It’s a big opportunity because it’s the first time for me and for Haiti in the Olympic games."
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Viano placed 34th in men’s slalom and skied out in the giant slalom. But that didn’t ruin his experience. He said he's received thousands of messages of support from the Haitian people – and realized something.
“There aren’t (many) Black skiers in the Olympic Games,” Viano said.
It's an issue Alpine skier Benjamin Alexander, who began skiing about six years ago, is trying to address. He hails from Great Britain but competed for his father's native Jamaica in Beijing.
The financier-turned-DJ-turned-skier noted the number of countries that compete in the Summer Olympics (more than 200) compared to the 91 represented in Beijing. He also pointed out that the true medal contenders are confined to countries with access to the Alps, are Scandinavian nations or have a vast population and varied geography (such as the United States).
“If this thing, the Olympic Winter Games, is something that 10 countries come to and have a chance of medaling in … then the rest of world gets bored and they invest their time and money into something else," he told Paste BN Sports. “Something’s got to give."
Realizing that the technical events (slalom, giant slalom) had more manageable qualifying metrics than the speed races (downhill, super-G), Alexander turned his attention to giant slalom. Although he finished last among all competitors, Alexander said his goal of making it down the mountain meant more to him than the 69-second gap between himself and the gold medalist.
He was able to qualify, but Alexander said "it’s still hard for athletes from nations who haven’t been skiing their whole lives or had that consistent exposure to the sport."
Why skiing is so white
Alexander believes there are three socioeconomic factors that determine if an individual will try skiing: having parents who are skiers, being born into a family with disposable income and growing up in the foothills of mountains.
It wasn't until he was in his 30s, disc jockeying a party in British Columbia, that he found skiing – a few friends on the party circuit went heli-skiing one day.
“I just thought it was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen, (my friends) turning into superheroes right in front of my eyes,” Alexander said.
Alexander says the May 2020 murder of George Floyd led to his profile being raised in the skiing world. He was the subject of an article in the skiing publication "POWDER Magazine" and became a full-time sponsored athlete at 37.
"Just by virtue of the diversity card, way before my accomplishments and way before my skiing warranted it," he said.
Even in diverse countries like the United States, skiing is almost entirely a white sport. According to an Associated Press audit of the U.S. Ski Federation, 1% of the nation's staff identified as a person of color. All of the coaches and board members are white. The entire U.S. Ski & Snowboarding team was either white or of Asian descent.
"It's incredibly unfortunate," said the USA's Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who won silver in the super-G at Beijing and is white. "We all want to figure out ways to close those gaps between different minorities and their access to skiing."
Viano and Alexander represent Caribbean countries with large Black populations (Haiti and Jamaica are both more than 90% Black). But Africa – a continent inhabited by more than 1.3 million people and majority Black – hardly participated in the 2022 Games. Only five countries from the continent competed in Beijing (Eritrea, Ghana, Morocco, Madagascar and Nigeria), and the number of athletes from the continent was cut in half, according to The Associated Press.
“Is this the European Olympics or is this an Olympics that reflects the world?” Simidele Adeagbo, a former skeleton athlete from Nigeria, told The Associated Press. “We’re talking about the Olympics; we shouldn’t have complete exclusion. Given the resources and support, Africans are just as capable.”
The International Olympic Committee awarded 429 athletes with scholarships to offset the financial burden of being an Olympic athlete, per the AP. European participants received 295 of those, with only 16 going to African athletes.
Determined to increase diversity
Jean-Pierre Roy, president of the Haiti Ski Federation, has traveled to the last 10 International Ski Federation (FIS) World Championships putting out the call to find a skier with Haitian heritage. He founded the federation in the aftermath of the country's devastating 2010 earthquake to promote Haiti. Roy spoke on every radio station, television channel and podcast that would have him.
One day, someone told him about Richardson Viano. He was a skier and was born in Haiti. The FIS approved his change of nationality in November 2019, a few months after Roy first contacted Viano and his family.
“I think (the Haitian people) have discovered that it’s great for the country to be there,” Roy said. “They see Haiti in a positive way. They understood what’s happened in these Olympic Games with Richardson.”
Roy realizes that future Haitian skiers likely won't be living in Haiti, as there are no mountains. But climate and geography shouldn't be barriers to entry, same as financial or accessibility issues, Alexander said.
"As we talk about diversity, we’ve got to look for the easy wins – the sports that have transferable talents from sports that are cheap and easy to access and then pluck the best of the best from those worlds," he said.
Alexander is planning a meet-and-greet with U.S. speedskater Erin Jackson, who became the first Black woman to win a gold in an individual event at a Winter Olympics, to figure out the transition from inline racing to the ice. He also invoked the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team, a group of ex-track and field athletes. American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, who won two medals in Beijing, is an example of this proactiveness. She was a college softball player and was intentionally recruited to her new sport.
From there, the cycle of representation sets itself, Alexander said. More eyeballs, more money, more sponsors. Then that blueprint trickles into other sports.
In 2026, Alexander will not don a race suit. He likes to say he'll be in a business suit, hopefully as the president of the Jamaican Ski Federation, or in some other official capacity. He's already identified a trio of U.S.-born Jamaicans who are skiers.
Alexander would like mainstream media to stop deploying the stereotype Black people don't like the cold. He also wants people to understand that representation is a first step, and that other issues must be addressed to involve racial minorities in winter sports.
"There needs to be something to work towards," Alexander said. "There needs to be something that your parents can say, 'Look, I’m interested in investing in my child’s development in skiing,' knowing that he (or she) has a passport that will give (them) access to the Winter Games because that will be an incredible thing for (them) and our family."
Contributing: Associated Press
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.