Vancouver 2010: Soul on Ice
What used to be called the "white Olympics" has become a diverse sports competition. Take a look at some of the Africans, black Europeans and African Americans, past and present, who have participated in the Winter Games.
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Shani DavisGetty ImagesUSA
Height: 6-foot-2 Weight: 185 lbs
Event: Speed skating
500 meters, 1000m, 1500m 5000m, 10,000m
The native Chicagoan may be the world's fastest man on two skates. In 2006, he won the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics gold medal in the men's 1000-meter race. The victory made him the first African-American individual gold medalist.
Click here for video of him setting a record, and here to see his acceleration.
CAPTIONS BY FRANK MCCOY
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Bill SchuffenhauerGetty ImagesUSA
Height: 6 feet Weight: 220 lbs
Event: Four-Man bobsled
Position: Pusher
Schuffenhauer (third from the left) wants gold this time. In 2002, he, driver Todd Hayes, Garrett Hines, and Randy Jones captured a silver medal in Salt Lake City. In 2006, Schuffenhauer's team came in sixth.
Click here to see how he trains.
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Randy JonesGetty ImagesUSA
Height: 5-foot-10 Weight: 214 lbs
Event: Four-man and two-man bobsled, Member of the 2010 U.S. Olympic Committee
Pushman
Jones has more bobsled medals than any other American, and performed in three Winter Olympics, Lillehamer, Nagano and Salt Lake City. The mechanical engineer, who also has a degree in biological science, was part of the team that won silver in the 2002 Winter Games.
Click here for video of Olympians reminiscing.
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Vonetta FlowersGetty ImagesUSA
Height: 5-foot-6 Weight: 155 lbs
Event: Two-woman bobsled
Pushwoman
The seven-time All-American track and field athlete at the University of Alabama tried bobsledding out of curiosity. Within two years, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sister and her teammate had a gold medal in Salt Lake City in 2002. Flowers was the first black person to win a gold medal in the winter Olympics. In 2006, her bobsled came in sixth in Turin.
Click here for video of Flowers reflecting.
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Aaron ParchemGetty ImagesUSA
Height: 5-foot-10 Weight: 170 lbs
Event: Figure skating, pairs
In 2006, Parchem and his partner, Marcy Hinzmann, made it to the Turin Winter Games after winning the silver medal at that year's U.S. Figure Skating Championships. They placed 13th in the competition.
Click here for video of Parchem in Turin.
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Garrett HinesGetty ImagesUSA
Event: Four-man bobsled
Height: 6 feet Weight: 210
Pushman
Hines was the brakeman in the four-man bobsled, along with Bill Schuffenhauer, driver Todd Hayes, and Randy Jones that won silver in Salt Lake City in 2002. In 1998, in Nagano, Japan, he was on bobsled teams that placed fifth in the four-man and 10th in two-man events.
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Craig JohnsonGetty ImagesUSA
Event: Ice Hockey
Height: 6-foot-2 Weight: 200 lbs
Left wing - Shoots Left
Johnson is the only African American to play on a U.S. Olympics ice hockey team. From 1993-1994, the native Minnesotan "played in all eight games at the Lillehammer, Norway Olympics." He played for four National Hockey League teams.
Click here for video of Johnson scoring.
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Herschel WalkerGetty ImagesUSA
Event: Two-man bobsled
Height: 6-foot-1 Weight: 225 lbs
Pushman
The former NFL All-Pro running back, who is now a mixed martial arts fighter, always liked to keep busy. In 1992, he devoted his spare time, when not playing for the Minnesota Vikings, to the U.S. bobsled team. But it wasn't enough. His sled came in seventh in the Albertville, France, games.
Click here for video of Walker on the 1992 bobsled team.
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Chris ColemanGetty ImagesUSA
Event: Four-man bobsled
Height: 6-foot-1 Weight: 225 lbs
Pushman
Coleman was a pusher for the U.S. bobsled teams in both Lillehammer, Norway and Albertville, France.
Click here for video of Coleman supporting his sport.
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Debi ThomasGetty ImagesUSA
Event: Figure skating
In 1988, in Calgary, Thomas and Katarina Witt waged “the battle of the Carmens.” They both skated to the music of Bizet’s opera, Carmen. Thomas, the 1986 world champion took third in the event. Now, an orthopedic surgeon, she is known as Dr. Thomas.
Click here for video of the 1988 Olympics.
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Tai BabiloniaGetty ImagesUSA
Event: Pairs figure skating
She and her partner, Randy Gardner, were medal favorites in 1980 at Lake Placid, but they were forced to withdraw due to an injury to Gardner. They placed fifth in 1976, in Innsbruck, Austria.
Click here for video of Babilonia on ice.
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Henry NwumeGetty ImagesUnited Kingdom
Event: Four-man bobsled
Height: 6-foot-3 Weight: 251 lbs
Pushman
(Pictured on the left) The armed forces medical doctor, who was born in Zambia, is competing in his first Olympics. The excellent athlete had previously played elite level rugby in England.
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Lascelles BrownGetty ImagesCanada
Event: Two-man bobsled
Height: 183 cm Weight: 97 kg
Brakeman
This is Brown's second winter Olympics. The native Jamaican got his British citizenship two weeks before the 2006 games, and went on to win a silver medal in the two-man event. He hopes to do better in Vancouver.
Click here for video of a bobsled run.
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Shelley-Ann BrownGetty ImagesCanada
Event: Two-woman bobsled
Height: 174 cm Weight: 76.5 kg
Brown was an NCAA championship level hurdler at the University of Nebraska before she began bobsledding three years ago, and in 2002 was the university's athlete of the year.
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Jarome IginlaGetty ImagesCanada
Event: Ice Hockey
Height: 6-foot-1 Weight: 208 lbs
Forward, shoots right
How good is Iginla? The National Hockey League reports that the captain of the Calgary Flames, in the past decade, has led everyone in goals scored (360), was second in points (737), first in shots (2,591), first in game-winning goals (58), and 1st in power play goals (115). He also won the league leadership award in 2009.
Click here for video of him scoring, his leadership and of him mixing it up.
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Surya BonalyGetty ImagesFrance
Event: Figure skating
Bonaly is not competing in Vancouver. She was in three Olympic Winter Games, and placed fifth in 1992 in Albertville, France, fourth in 1994 at Lillehammer, and 10th in 1998 at Nagano. She was a five-time winner of the European Figure Skating Championships, and the only female skater to do a back flip.
Click here for a clip of Bonaly in 1993.
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Vanessa JamesGetty ImagesFrance
Event: Pairs figure skating
Height: 5-foot-2
James and Yannick Bonheur, see previous slide, skate to the jazzy blues and then go for the Hot Stuff.
Click here for video of James and Bonheur in 2009.
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Richard AdjeiGetty ImagesGermany
Event: Two-man and four-man boblsled
Height 6-foot-2 Weight 243 lbs
Adjei was a linebacker for the Berlin Thunder in NFL Europe, before turning to bobsledding. He earned a gold medal in his first bobsled championship tournament.
Click here for video of Adjei‘s first gold medal.
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Robin SzolkowyGetty ImagesGermany
Event: Pair figure skating.
Height 5-foot-8
He's the son of a Tanzanian father and a German mother, and he competed in Turin in 2006. Of course, he is on Facebook.
Click here to see him receive a standing ovation.
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Kwame Nkrumah-AcheampongGetty ImagesGhana
Event: Alpine skiing
Height: 5-foot-10 Weight: 187 lbs
The 35-year-old was a tennis champ as a student. He has been skiing for six years and will compete in the Men's Giant Slalom and the Men's Slalom. He is known as the Snow Leopard.
Click here for video of his quest to inspire Africa.
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The Jamaican Bobsled TeamGetty ImagesThe 2010 Jamaican team did not qualify for the Vancouver Olympics.
But the 1988 bobsled team that sparked new interest in the Winter Games deserves a second look. Here is their Olympic video. Luckily, no one was injured.
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Errol KerrGetty ImagesJamaica
Event: SkiCross
Height: 5-foot-8 Weight: 209 lbs
Kerr is Jamaican-American and decided to compete for his Jamaican father's homeland
Click here for video of the Jamaican ski team.
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Timothy BeckGetty ImagesNetherlands
Event: Four-man bobsled
Height: 5-foot-9 Weight: 192 lbs
A sprinter by training, in 2004, Beck was on the team that won the 4x100 meter relay in the Athens Summer Olympics.
Click here for video of him bobsledding.
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Nkeiruka EzekhGetty ImagesRussian Federation
Event: Curling
Height: 5-foot-10
Ezekh (middle), 26, whose father is Nigerian and mother is Russian, has a degree in engineering from the Moscow Aviation Institute. She was part of Russia's 2006 curling team in Turin.
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Leyti SeckGetty ImagesSenegal
Event: Alpine Skiing
Born in Germany, and with a quintessentially Senegalese surname, Seck will compete in the Men's Giant Slalom and Men's Slalom. Senegal has had athletes in four Winter Games. Seck may be the first to medal.
Click here for video of Seck on the slopes.
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Johnny Oduya
Sweden
Event: Ice Hockey
Height: 6 feet Weight: 198 lbs
Shoots left
What do you get when you combine a Kenyan father and a Swedish mother? A sound defenseman who can score and plays for the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers, as well as the Winter Olympic games. He will play for Sweden in Vancouver.
Oduya scores and scores again.
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Kalyna RobergeGetty ImagesCanada
Event: Short track speed skating - 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m Relay
Height: 5-foot-2 Weight: 108 lbs
Roberge, whose father is from Canada and mother from Mauritius, joined team Canada before she was 19. She won a silver medal in 2006 in the 3000-meter relay, and was world champion in the 500 meter in 2007.
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29 of 29 Robel TeklemariamGetty ImagesEthiopia
Event: Cross Country
In 2006, he became the first Ethiopian to participate in the Olympic Winter Games. He was 83rd in the 15-kilometer race. He sees a link between Ethiopian dominance of long-distance running and cross-country skiing. Club Med, his employer, is sponsoring his 2010 bid.
Click here for video of his Olympic story.
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