Who became the first Black athlete to win Winter Olympic gold in 2002?

Vonetta Flowers became the first Black athlete to win Winter Olympic gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Flowers won the two-woman bobsleigh event with driver Jill Bakken. Their victory made Flowers the first African American and the first Black athlete from any country to win a Winter Olympic gold medal. Bakken was also a champion, but the distinction in the question belongs to Flowers.

Her route to the podium was unusual. Flowers had been a successful sprinter and long jumper at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and originally hoped to reach the Summer Olympics. After unsuccessful attempts, she switched to bobsleigh and quickly established herself as an elite brakewoman.

The achievement is sometimes confused with later milestones involving Shani Davis, who became the first Black athlete to win an individual Winter Olympic gold medal in 2006. Flowers’ 2002 medal came in a team event, but it remains the first Winter Olympic gold won by a Black athlete.