Black American Women in Sports
I have really enjoyed discovering the stories of great Black Women in America from history. Too many of these remarkable women have been forgotten. The Black women who lived many decades ago who were very courageous and persevered in the face of so much prejudice should be given credit for opening the way for Black females to participate in all sports. Women like Vonetta Flowers who was the First ever Black Woman to win a gold medal in Winter Olympics was an inspiration to many Black girls and opened the door for more participation for Black athletes. All Americans should be proud of her.
We have also noted that many more black women are playing tennis today due in part to the pioneering efforts of Althea Gibson and Serena Williams. Thanks to the valiant efforts of gold medal winners – Wilma Rudolph, Florence Joyner, and Michelle Carter, there are thousands of Black girls involved in Track and Field today. We can’t say enough for the courage of Wilma Rudolph who went from being crippled from polio as a child to the “fastest woman in the world”. In one of our stories this week, Vonetta Flowers, first Black woman to win a gold inspired Elana Meyers Taylor who has become the most decorated Black athlete in history.
In this post we take brief glimpses into the lives of Black women in winter sports, and next time we will look into some of the many stories of incredible Black women in summer sports. We will continue to follow our theme of Black Women in America Firsts. The overwhelming numbers of Black women in sports today just proves that all they needed was the opportunity to try. Their excellence is proof of their capabilities. It’s a shame the world took so long to recognize this truth.
Black Women Athletes in Winter Sports
Erin Jackson – Speed Skating (b. 1992)
Erin Jackson is the First Black woman to win a gold medal in an individual sport at the Winter Olympics. She won her medal as a Team USA speed skater in the 500m event in Beijing in 2022.
The Winter Olympics began a century ago and has been a mostly “lily-white” affair. The International Olympics Committee has tried to increase diversity through quota systems but there hasn’t been enough change in society to bring more people of color into winter sports. It is expensive and Black children are not as exposed to winter sports.
Erin said, “I just think it’s really strange to imagine that it’s 2022 and I’m getting the first individual gold medal by a Black woman ever in the history of the Winter Olympics,” Jackson says. “I feel like that’s a pretty strange thing for the year that we’re in.” We agree.
Erin’s love for skating started early in her life. She skated in the driveway of her parent’s home in Ocala, Florida with a pair of plastic skates that buckled to her shoes. She told an interviewer “I started out with those little plastic skates that you attach to your shoes and I grew up what’s called a ‘rink rat’, just like the kids who always go to the rink on the weekends, skating around to music with your friends.” Erin spent two years in artistic skating (figure skating on wheels) at Skate Mania.
Erin had help to reach the Olympics with some assistance from key people in her life. Her mother worked at a pharmacy where she met Renee Hildebrand, a leading speed skating coach. Renee Hildebrand trained Ocala kids for three decades and many became world-class inline speed skaters. Erin’s mom told Renee Hildebrand about her daughter’s love for skating and Hildebrand invited Erin to a practice rink. There Hildebrand noticed how Erin would skate at “breakneck speeds”. She took Erin on.
Erin had only been ice speed skating for five years before the Olympics. She had some bumps along the road and nearly didn’t make it to Beijing. She had a mishap at the Olympic Trials and placed third. She was the World Cup leader at the time. Her team-mate Brittany Bowe who recognized Erin’s talent, decided to step away from her spot on the Olympic team. Brittany said, “I won the tournament but I know very well how I stand in the world ranking,” Bowe said. “Erin’s ranked No. 1 in the world and now she’s an Olympic champion. It was the right thing to do…. So proud of her, I want this moment to be about her and just enjoy it. That’s exactly what I told her.” This was a very unselfish thing for Brittany to do and she should be recognized for her greatness as well.
Erin is thankful for her opportunities and a chance to fulfill her dreams. Erin is hopeful that more minorities, especially in the United States, will get out and try winter sports. Erin is a great example for young Black kids.
Elana Meyers Taylor – Bobsledding (b. 1984)
Elana Taylor is the most decorated Black female athlete in winter sports. She is a 4-time World champion, has 8 world championship medals, won 4 times at Winter Olympic games (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022) and was declared World Cup Champion in bobsled in 2015.
Elana Meyers was born in California but grew up in Georgia. Her father was a professional football player on the Atlanta Falcons team. His career was not without struggles and he was an encouragement to her to never give up. She was naturally gifted in many sports, playing softball at 9 years of age. She decided she wanted to be an Olympian. She attended George Washington University on a softball scholarship and went on to play professionally with the Mid-Michigan Ice (fastpitch softball).
Elana tried out for the Olympic Softball Team but did not succeed, calling it “’the worst tryout ever in the history of tryouts’ for the U.S. Olympic Softball Team.” Her parents tried to encourage her to try a different sport. They had been watching bobsled racing on television and suggested that to her. It turned out to be a good turning point for Elana.
Elana also gives credit to Vonetta Flowers for switching to bobsled. Elana noted that Vonetta was the first Black athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Elana later said, “There’s a lot of people that came before me … Flowers is the reason I’m here and Shani David and even Erin Jackson. It’s just been such a long legacy of Black athletes at the Winter Olympics and hopefully it just continues.”
Elana went to Lake Placid, N.Y. in 2007 and never left. She made the bobsled team and was noted as one of the most powerful brakemen ever. In only 3 years she took the bronze medal in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. She continued to win medals all over the world for the next few years and eventually won her way back to a podium finish at Sochi, Russia in 2014 for a silver. Later in 2014 she married Nic Taylor a fellow bobsledder.
In 2015 Elana made one of many Firsts in history as she became the first woman to earn a spot on the men’s bobsled team. She was the pilot of the four-man bobsled team. The team earned a medal. Elana became the 2015 World Champion, winning six of eight World Cup races that year.
Why would a woman want to race on a men’s bobsled team? You can find out in her own words in this interview (2014) when the team was preparing for competition.
https://www.teamusa.org/news/2014/november/05/elana-meyers-why-race-four-man-bobsled
Elana won the 2015 World Championships in the women’s two-man event, the first woman in U.S. history to do so. That season she also won six of eight World Cup races and became the Overall World Cup Champion.
In 2018, at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, Elana battled back and forth with Team Germany over the four heat Olympic competition, missing the gold medal by just .07. Elana then looked forward to return to the Olympic Games in 2022 and once again fight for gold. She didn’t get gold, but she earned the two other medals which put her in first place for the number of medals for a Black athlete.
Erin and Sylvia took the bronze at the 2022 games. At the conclusion of the Winter Olympics in Beijing Elana had made history by becoming the most decorated Black athlete in the Winter Olympics when she and Sylvia Hoffman for Team USA took a bronze medal in the bobsled event. Elana had also won a silver in the monobob event. With these wins Elana passed Shani Davis, a Black male speed skater, for the most medals.
Elana’s Personal Life
Elana has worked with the Women’s Sports Foundation since 2010. Elana has served on the Foundation’s Athlete Advisory Panel and traveled the country sharing her passion for sports and equality with girls in our Sports 4 Life and GoGirlGo! funded programs.
Elana served a six-year term as an athlete director on the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Board of Directors and is currently a mentor for Classroom Champions. Recently, George Washington University honored her with an honorary doctorate degree.
Elana’s son, Nico, has Down’s syndrome. Today she juggles his weekly therapies (5 per week) with training. She is proud of her son and said in an interview, “What’s really amazing is seeing how his language has blossomed, especially as he interacts with the US Bobsled team. He waves and laughs and smiles at our teammates, and he’s getting closer to speaking (outside of mama and dada which he already says) every day and I can’t help but be extremely thankful for the US team’s role in this.
Nico’s schedule may add a bit of complexity into our already chaotic lives- but I wouldn’t change him for the world. I’m honoured to be his mother, to be a parent of a child with special needs, and if I can be a bobsledder while doing it- then that’s pretty cool too.”
Elana is not only an outstanding athlete, but she is a truly remarkable person. She is a wonderful mother and also a great mentor and teacher for young people wanting to get into winter sports today.
Other Black Women Firsts
We are running out of space, but I do not want to conclude this post without mentioning a few more notable Black Women Firsts. Please go to the attached links to find out more about them.
Vonetta Flowers –On February 18, 2002, Vonetta Flowers made Olympic history, becoming the First Black woman to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. Her fellow Olympians chose her to carry the U.S.A. flag in the closing ceremonies.
You can read much more of her story in her book:
Running on Ice: The Overcoming Faith of Vonetta Flowers. (New Hope Publishers, 2005)
Excerpt from cover: “But this historic feat took the faith of a conqueror. though trained as a track and field athlete since the age of 9, Vonetta did not make the cut for the summer Olympic track team. Her coach and husband, Johnny, later saw an ad for bobsled competitors and convinced Vonetta to go for this previously unconsidered sport. She made it. Her lifetime of track training placed her in the anchor position on the 2-woman bobsled team, and the rest is literally history. Vonetta’s story is one of intense faith in God, whom she freely credits for her victories.
Maame Biney –Youngest skater and first Black woman to make a US Olympic short track speed skating team. And second-ever African-born athlete to represent the US in Winter Olympics in 2018. Maame went to the 2022 Olympics but did not medal. However, she continues to be recognized as an up-and-coming winner!
(Dr.) Debi Thomas – First to win both the US and World figure skating championships. Bronze in 1988 and only African American to win a medal in figure skating that year.
Debi had been interested in a medical career since childhood. She studied at Stanford, pursued her skating, and then returned to Stanford for a degree in engineering.
She went on the get a medical degree from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 1997. She went into orthopedics.
http://www.myblackhistory.net/Debbie_Thompson.htm
Lauryn Williams – First Black woman to win summer and winter Olympics medals. Lauryn competed in Track and Field and Bobsledding.
As we have noted many times now, great strides have been made in granting equal opportunities to Black women. There is still a long way to go before the prejudice is ended, but as we see in this post and the next one on summer sports, many Black girls have been given opportunities and have excelled!
