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.

[10]

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Shani Davis

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USA

Height: 6-foot-2 Weight: 185 lbs

Event: Speed skating

500 meters, 1000m, 1500m 5000m, 10,000m

The native Chicagoan [11] 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 [12] for video of him setting a record, and here [13] to see his acceleration.

CAPTIONS BY FRANK MCCOY
2 of 29

Bill Schuffenhauer

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USA

Height: 6 feet Weight: 220 lbs

Event: Four-Man bobsled

Position: Pusher

Schuffenhauer [14] (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 [15] to see how he trains.
3 of 29

Randy Jones

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USA

Height: 5-foot-10 Weight: 214 lbs

Event: Four-man and two-man bobsled, Member of the 2010 U.S. Olympic Committee

Pushman

Jones [16] 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 [17] for video of Olympians reminiscing.
4 of 29

Vonetta Flowers

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USA

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 [17] for video of Flowers reflecting.
5 of 29

Aaron Parchem

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USA

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 [18] for video of Parchem in Turin.
6 of 29

Garrett Hines

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USA

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.
7 of 29

Craig Johnson

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USA

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 [19] for video of Johnson scoring.
8 of 29

Herschel Walker

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USA

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 [20] for video of Walker on the 1992 bobsled team.
9 of 29

Chris Coleman

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USA

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 [21] for video of Coleman supporting his sport.
10 of 29

Debi Thomas

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USA

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 [22] for video of the 1988 Olympics.
11 of 29

Tai Babilonia

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USA

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 [23] for video of Babilonia on ice.
12 of 29

Henry Nwume

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United 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.
13 of 29

Lascelles Brown

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Canada

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 [24] for video of a bobsled run.
14 of 29

Shelley-Ann Brown

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Canada

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.
15 of 29

Jarome Iginla

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Canada

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 [25], his leadership [26] and of him mixing it up [27].
16 of 29

Surya Bonaly

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France

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 [28].

Click here [29] for a clip of Bonaly in 1993.
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Yannick Bonheur

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France

Event: Pairs figure skating

Height: 6 feet

The 27-year-old has had opportunities to partner with Vanessa James, next slide, in competition.

Click here [30] for video of the 2010 free skating championships and here [31] for Bonheur and James in 2009.
18 of 29

Vanessa James

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France

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 [32] for video of James and Bonheur in 2009.
19 of 29

Richard Adjei

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Germany

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 [33] for video of Adjei‘s first gold medal.
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Robin Szolkowy

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Germany

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 [34].

Click here [35] to see him receive a standing ovation.
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Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong

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Ghana

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 [36] for video of his quest to inspire Africa.
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The Jamaican Bobsled Team

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The 2010 Jamaican team [37] 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 [38] is their Olympic video. Luckily, no one was injured.
23 of 29

Errol Kerr

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Jamaica

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 [39] for video of the Jamaican ski team.
24 of 29

Timothy Beck

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Netherlands

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 [40] for video of him bobsledding.
25 of 29

Nkeiruka Ezekh

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Russian 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.
26 of 29

Leyti Seck

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Senegal

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 [41] for video of Seck on the slopes.
27 of 29

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 [42].

Oduya scores [43] and scores again [44].
28 of 29

Kalyna Roberge

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Canada

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.
29 of 29

Robel Teklemariam

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Ethiopia

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 [45] for video of his Olympic story.