{"id":385899,"date":"2017-12-24T12:58:09","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T12:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=385899"},"modified":"2017-12-24T12:58:09","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T12:58:09","slug":"ghanaian-born-speedskater-first-black-woman-make-us-olympic-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=385899","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaian-born speedskater is first black woman to make US Olympic team"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 17-year-old Virginia skater is the first black woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic speedskating team.<\/p>\n

Maame Biney, of Reston, Virginia, secured her spot on the team after she made history winning the 500-meter races at the U.S. Olympic Short Track Trials on Dec. 16. The bubbly skater flew past the competition and\u00a0then fell as she celebrated.<\/p>\n

Of course, she got right back up.<\/p>\n

Biney says she owes her determination to her Ghana-born father. She is grateful for how much he has sacrificed and the amount of work he put into her success, she said.<\/p>\n

\"[NATL-DFW]<\/div>\n
\n
Natasha Mishkutionok, an 11-year-old ice skater, shares her love of skating and her dream of being better than her mother, Natalia, who is an Olympic gold and silver medalist.<\/div>\n

(Published Friday, Dec. 22, 2017)<\/span><\/div>\n

The Olympian’s father,\u00a0Kweku Biney, moved with her to the U.S. in 2005 in an effort to give his daughter a better future.<\/p>\n

They had to leave behind other family members to begin their new life.<\/p>\n

“My journey was never easy. It was hard, but I made it,” Kweku\u00a0Biney said<\/p>\n

Although Biney credits her father for her many accomplishments, he refuses to take it.\u00a0“God saw me through it,” he said. “He planned it all. I was just the facilitator. That\u2019s all I can say,” he continued.<\/p>\n

Perhaps there was some destiny involved. During an interview with News4, Kweku held out a business card that his daughter had never seen. Maame\u00a0grabbed it, looked and laughed.<\/p>\n

It was a reminder card for her first group skating lesson, her dad said, that was scheduled for Dec. 17, 2005. Exactly 12 years and one day later, she would qualify for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\"[NATL]<\/div>\n

\n
South Korea is ahead of schedule in constructing venues for the 2018 Winter Olympics and NBC got an exclusive tour of the arenas that will host skating events. Some of the biggest events of the games will take place here.<\/div>\n

(Published Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017)<\/span><\/div>\n

Biney\u2019s icy ride began at six years old. When her father\u00a0saw a \u201clearn to skate\u201d sign at SkateQuest in Reston, he initially signed Biney up for figure skating.<\/p>\n

A few months into the lessons, Biney\u2019s coach noticed she skated too fast for figure skating and mentioned she should try speedskating. Her coach was onto something.<\/p>\n

Twelve years later, the high school senior is part of history and the Olympic team<\/p>\n

Although originally from Ghana, Biney wants to represent the U.S. because of the country’s diversity.<\/p>\n

“This is what this country is. It\u2019s diverse and different, and that\u2019s exactly why I\u2019m representing the U.S. Because we\u2019re different.”<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Biney prepares for her first Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, she believes the sacrifices she\u2019s made for\u00a0speedskating were worth it.<\/p>\n

\n
As we get closer to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, here is a pronunciation guide for some of the venues at the Winter Games, as spoken by NBC Boston’s Young-Jin Kim, a Korean American journalst.<\/div>\n

(Published Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017)<\/span><\/div>\n

“Even with all the hard work, all the crying, all the tears, I would do it again because I had double the laughter.”<\/p>\n

Biney is the second African-American speedskater to represent Team USA at the Olympics, following in the footsteps of Shani Davis. Davis has since made three more Olympic teams and earned four medals, including two golds.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: nbcwashington<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 17-year-old Virginia skater is the first black woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic speedskating team. Maame Biney, of Reston, Virginia, secured her spot on the team after she made history winning the 500-meter races at the U.S. Olympic Short Track Trials on Dec. 16. The bubbly skater flew past the competition and\u00a0then fell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":385900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,249],"tags":[15658,5109,15657,323],"class_list":["post-385899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-other-sports","tag-maame-biney","tag-olympics","tag-speed-skating","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/385900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}