Abstract

A record number of eight African countries competed at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea despite Africa being regarded as one of the hottest continents in the world. The continent’s almost complete lack of snow or ice weather conditions is the most obvious hurdle to African winter Olympic hopefuls. Although athletes from this continent compete successfully at the summer Olympics, very few African countries send teams of athletes to compete at the winter Olympics on a consistent basis. By 2014 less than a quarter of the fifty-four countries in Africa had ever competed at the winter Olympics, yet the history of African countries participating at the winter Olympics dates back almost six decades. The first appearance of an African country at the winter Olympics was at the 1960 games in Squaw Valley, USA, when South Africa participated for the first time. Since 1984, at least one African nation has competed at each subsequent winter Olympics. The lack of climate for winter sports, such as bobsleigh, skiing and snowboarding, limits the level of participation in winter sports. However, globalization and the relatively limited access to tertiary institutions in Africa have brought young African athletes in contact with many forms of winter sport while studying or working abroad, predominantly in the northern hemisphere.

摘要

尽管非洲被认为是世界上最热的大陆之一，但创纪录的八个非洲国家参加了在韩国平昌举行的2018年冬季奥运会。非洲大陆几乎完全没有冰雪天气条件，这是非洲冬奥会寄予希望的最明显障碍。尽管来自该大陆的运动员在夏季奥运会上都取得了成功的比赛，但很少有非洲国家派出一队运动员来参加冬季奥运会。到2014年，非洲的54个国家中只有不到四分之一曾参加过冬季奥运会，但是非洲国家参加冬季奥运会的历史可以追溯到将近60年。非洲国家在冬季奥运会上的首次亮相是在1960年在美国斯阔谷举行的奥运会上，南非第一次参加。自1984年以来，至少有一个非洲国家参加了以后的每届冬季奥运会。雪橇，滑雪和单板滑雪等冬季运动缺乏气候，限制了冬季运动的参与水平。但是，全球化和非洲高等教育机构相对有限的进入，使年轻的非洲运动员在出国学习或在国外工作时（主要是在北半球）接触了许多形式的冬季运动。