Jamaican Olympian Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian Is a Role Model For Black Children

This Olympian teared up about being a role model for black girls, while speaking to the press.

“It’s important for me that little girls and little boys see someone that looks like them, talks like them, has the same culture as them, has crazy curly hair and wears it natural, has brown skin, included in different things in this world.” Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian stated, “When you grow up and you don’t see that, you feel that you can’t do it and that is not right. So coming back home to Jamaica, I wanted my Jamaican people to see that they can do it.”

Fenlator-Victorian is competing on Jamaica’s first women’s Olympic bobsled team. She joined the Jamaica team after representing the USA in 2014. She is a dual citizen in Jamaica and the U.S. — she switched teams to pioneer the women’s bobsled team in Jamaica and inspire kids in the island country.

Less than 2% of athletes in this year’s Olympics are black. Fenlator-Victorian hopes that she and her bobsled team promote diversity and inspired young athletes to train.

She stated, “If they want to be a Winter Olympian and do Alpine ski, now they see their fellow Jamaicans in the Winter Olympics.”