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Andre Horton: the first black men’s skier on the U.S. Alpine team
His mother introduced him to the sport at age 5
2:42 PMAndre Horton became the first black men’s skier to make the U.S. Alpine ski team in 2001.
Born: Oct. 4, 1979
His story: Andre Horton was born in Anchorage, Alaska, to a white mother and a black father. His mother, Elsena, moved to Alaska from Idaho, where she was an avid skier. She introduced Andre to the sport when he was 5 years old, and his younger sister Suki took up skiing at age 3. Horton started as a Nordic skier, which includes cross-country skiing, before switching to Alpine (downhill). He skied with Mount Bachelor Ski Educational Foundation before earning a spot on the U.S. ski team’s development team. By 2002, he and Suki were the top-ranked African-American ski racers in the country. Horton retired in 2004, citing new opportunities as well as the financial strain of the sport. He finished fourth in the super G and sixth in the downhill in his final U.S. Alpine Championships that same year.
Fast fact: Horton once worked part time at the Anchorage Daily News as a photographer.
Quotable: “I’ve made some black people cry because they couldn’t believe I was racing down a course at a world-class level,” Horton told Ski Racing Journal. “Because they could never do it when they were growing up. That’s my quiet smile, as I call it.”
The Undefeated will profile an athlete each day during Black History Month.