Black Olympians in Vancouver

Jarome Iginla

By Jack Toronto The Afro News Delta ,Black athletes earned renown at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Each of Canada’s black athletes competing at the games earned a medal. Kalyna Roberge took home a silver medal as a member of the women’s 3,000-metre relay team in short track speed skating. In women’s two-man bobsleigh, silver also went to Shelley-Ann Brown while Lascelles Brown braked the men’s four-man team to bronze. Jarome Iginla was a force to be reckoned with throughout the men’s hockey tournament and sparked the dramatic overtime win over the Americans in the gold medal game with his blind pass to Sidney Crosby. Shani Davis was golden for the United States in the 1,000 metres men’s long track skating and picked up silver in the 1,500 metres event. Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the first Ghanaian to ski in a winter Olympics, took just six years to jump from absolute beginner to Olympic qualifier in men’s slalom. A medal was never in the cards but he competed against the world’s best and reached his personal goal of not finishing last.

They didn’t win because they are black. They won like any top athlete, by honing natural talent through years of intense training and competition but their racial origin is almost always mentioned in media reports. Nobody mentioned that Alexandre Bilodeau is white, when he won Canada’s first gold medal on Canadian soil, but the fact that some winter Olympians are black is news. Frances Mitchell, sister of Shelley-Ann Brown, captures this sense of racial novelty in her blog. “People are generally surprised that black athletes can compete and even succeed at the Winter Olympic Games. Maybe it’s because the perception is there that they don’t like the cold and snow or maybe it’s because they do not attend the games in significant numbers. Of the 206 Canadian Olympians only 4 are black athletes.”

Granted, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong is in a class by himself. Born in Scotland but raised in Ghana, far from snow, his rise to international competition would be newsworthy regardless of the colour of his skin. And yes, Lascelles Brown was born in tropical Jamaica but he got into bobsledding through that country’s established program before coming to Canada to train in 2004. With that background it is no surprise that he is on the international bobsleigh circuit.

Why are so few Canadian winter Olympic athletes black? It probably comes down to money. Winter sports are expensive, are often taught through private clubs and require pricey equipment and facilities such as bobsleigh runs. Immigration accounts for the greatest recent increase in Canada’s black population and immigrants of all races often face economic challenges as they adapt to their new home. Discrimination against black people remains fact in Canada and contributes to financial hardship either directly in hiring practices or indirectly by increasing the stress of daily life for black Canadians. We will have more racially diverse Olympic teams and a stronger nation overall when all Canadians, especially our children, have equal access to sporting and artistic opportunities. We will know that this goal of open access has been reached when the only response to the presence of black athletes on Canada’s Winter Olympic teams is a shrug. “Of course we have black winter Olympians. We have Asian, Aboriginal and white too. What else do you want to talk about?”

jacktoronto@telus.net