On the slopes, a struggle for Black skiers’ Olympic dreams

Richardson Viano, of Haiti, celebrates after finishing the men's slalom run 2 at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. Haiti sent skier Richardson Viano to China as its first winter Olympian ever. Like Viano, who learned to ski in France after he was adopted by a French family, most of the African and Caribbean participants in the Games either trained or lived in countries with ski slopes and training facilities. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

FILE- Erin Jackson of the United States skates during a speedskating practice session at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Beijing. Jackson became the first Black woman to win a gold medal in speedskating. In other events, a small number of Black and Hispanic athletes compete with longshot chances at medals.(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 2, 2015, file photo, USA men's ski team member and six-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller participates in a news conference at the alpine skiing world championships, in Beaver Creek, Colo. "If your family didn't ski, or you weren't exposed to it through your upbringing, it's just very unusual," Miller said. "Your friends have to kind of push you into it." The solution to the lack of diversity in skiing and snowboarding, according to Miller and others, is creating access to the slopes for underserved communities. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

File- Skier Seba Johnson from the Virgin Islands looks back to see her racing time at the Olympic ladies Super-6 event at Mt. Allan in Nakiska, Alberta on Monday, Feb. 22, 1988. Johnson first saw skiing on a tiny black and white TV in the housing project where she lived in Fredericksted, on the island of St Croix. Nine years later, Johnson broke barriers during the 1988 Calgary Games, becoming the first Black woman to ski in a Winter Games, and at 14, the youngest. She relied on support from ski equipment companies, celebrities and other donors, and even then was able to spend far less time training than her competitors, due to socioeconomic barriers. (AP Photo/Rudi Blaha, File)

FILE - Kenya's Sabrina Simader speeds down the course during the women's super-G, at the alpine ski World Championships, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. Seba Johnson broke barriers during the 1988 Calgary Games, becoming the first Black woman to ski in a Winter Games, and at 14, the youngest. The next Black woman in an Olympic Alpine ski was Simader who skied in the 2018 Games at Pyeongchang, South Korea. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati, File)

FILE - Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the United States makes a jump during a men's downhill training run at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. The U.S. Alpine skiing team in Beijing is entirely white. The U.S. snowboarders and freestyle skiers include Asian American riders, but none that are Black or Hispanic. "It's incredibly unfortunate," said Cochran-Siegle, "we all want to figure out ways to close those gaps between different minorities and their access to skiing." (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)