Four years ago, Bryant Gumbel during a taping of his HBO show, “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” discussed how the absence of black athletes in the Winter Olympics made the competition boring for him and other blacks to watch.
“The Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like ’em and won’t watch ’em,” Gumbel said. “In fact, I figure when Thomas Paine said, ‘these are the times that try men’s souls,’ he must have been talking about the start of another Winter Olympics. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.”
Although Gumbel was criticized for his blunt remarks, his observation of the Winter Games was accurate. The Winter Olympics started in France in 1924. However, it took 56 years for the first black Americans to compete on behalf of the United States. In 1980, Willie Davenport and Jeff Gadley made the USA bobsled team and figure skater Dr. Debi Thomas became the first black American to win a medal in 1988. Vonetta Flowers and Shani Davis have both won gold medals this decade, but the Winter Olympics continues to be an event where blacks are underrepresented.
One of the main reasons there are so few blacks in winter sports is because of the cost that is associated with training to become a world-class athlete. For example, it can cost several thousand dollars per year for a teenager to purchase equipment and maintain a trainer if he or he wants to become a top-notch skier. Without scholarships and opportunities, many black kids that could become successful in winter sports will likely choose to compete in a sport that is less expensive and more culturally accepted by their peers.
As a result, there are not many blacks who try out for the Winter Olympics and most black Americans will not invest the time to watch the games.
But with the success of Davis, who is one of the top speed skaters in the world, the black community can finally cheer for an athlete who can dominate in a majority white sport, à la the Williams sisters and Tiger Woods. However, it will take years for the Winter Olympics to become an attractive sporting event for black Americans.
–amir shaw
