The first winners in the 2002 Olympic Winter Games debut for women’s two-man bobsledding. World Class Athlete Specialist Jill Bakken, USA, left, and Vonetta Flowers, of “USA-2” bobsled, show off their newly awarded gold medals presented to them at the medal ceremony in Salt Lake City. The team was not favored going in but ended up breaking a 46 year drought for the United States, winning the Gold over another American team and favored German team, setting a track record in the process. February 20, 2002. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
Jay Nordlinger talks of Vonetta Flowers.“That wonderful woman,” writes Mr. Nordlinger in NRO, won a gold medal in the bobsled in the 2002 Winter Olympics. She was the first black athlete from any country to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics.
She was the first black woman to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympics. But personnel at NBC Sports could not convey this information. They were apparently not allowed to say “black.” So they were reduced to saying, “the first African-American woman from any country to win a gold medal.”
Ay, caramba, again.
Political correctness, Mr. Nordlinger, points out, is, among other things, a curse on language.
By the way, a little Googling tells Jay Nordlinger that Ms. Flowers was “actually the first black person, male or female, to win a Winter gold. Her name is etched in history.”
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