The world has watched as Tiger Woods carved a path for African
Americans in golf. In tennis, it was the Williams sisters, Serena and
Venus, who’ve
broken the color barrier with their vicious serves and incredible
stamina. Decades before any of these trailblazing athletes were born it
was baseball legend Jackie Robinson who integrated America’s
favorite pastime. These athletes have truly been pioneers, opening
their respective sports to new generations of young black athletes.
However, there are a handful of sports in the United States that as of yet remain mostly Caucasian pursuits. Skiing is one of them. As one avid African- American skier explained to Ski Magazine, “Every time my family and I went skiing, we were always the only black family on the slopes. There’s
nothing bad about that, but I guess you like to see that you are not
the only one in your group participating in this great sport.”
Many factors are pointed to as an explanation of this, including money—skiing
is a very expensive sport to participate in. Also, African Americans
have not historically participated in this sport, so it is not something
that is passed down to their children. According to a National
Brotherhood of Skiing (NBS), an African-American skiing organization,
quoted in Ski Magazine, a third factor is geographic, “There are not many African Americans living in resort towns….They are not living in close proximity to skiing on a daily basis from the time they are very young.” A sister-brother duo from Anchorage, Alaska
is poised to change this, not only showing that African Americans can
ski, but that they can also become ski champions. By 2002 Andre and Suki
Horton were the top-ranked African American ski racers in the country,
and with their sights set on the 2006 Olympics, they may just become the
top-ranked ski-racers.
Additional information is available here.
Source: Encyclopedia.com
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