American Samoa competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, which were held from February 4 to 22, 2022. The territory's participation in Beijing marked its second appearance and return to the Winter Games since its debut in 1994. Nathan Crumpton was the sole athlete competing for the territory; he would compete in skeleton. Crumpton previously competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, which made him the first American Samoan athlete to compete at the Summer and Winter Games. He was the flagbearer for the territory at the opening ceremony and closing ceremony, and he went viral for being shirtless during the ceremonies.
Crumpton qualified for the games based on his rank on the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation's ranking list. He competed in the men's skeleton and placed nineteenth, which was the highest placement of the territory at the Winter Games. American Samoa has yet to win a medal in any Olympic Games.
Traditional Samoan clothing similar to Crumpton's for the opening ceremony
The American Samoan delegation was composed of two people. The official present was chef de mission Ryan Leong, who was also the swimming coach for the territory's swimmers at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.[4][5] The sole athlete was skeleton racer Nathan Crumpton, who also competed for the territory at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the men's 100 metres in athletics, making him the first American Samoan athlete to compete at the Summer and Winter Games.[6] Crumpton previously represented the United States in international competition and placed as high as eighth place at the World Championships.[7] In 2019, an arbitration case was filed by a teammate against the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation that confronted the federation's process of selecting athletes for World Cup events. This resulted in Crumpton not being able to compete for the World Cup and World Championships that season, where he then left the team. Through his Hawaiian maternal grandmother, he managed to qualify for the American Samoan team as the American Samoa National Olympic Committee lets athletes of other Polynesian diaspora compete for them.[8]
Crumpton flew to the territory in 2019 to revive the American Samoa Bobsled Federation's status with the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) as it had been dormant since the territory's Winter Olympic debut in 1994. He paid 300 euros to the IBSF and filled in some paperwork to reactivate its status. Training without a coach, he partnered with the British skeleton team to record his runs to review. He received a scholarship from the International Olympic Committee to help with his training, though has stated that he had spent $40,000 for his preparations. He had also set up a GoFundMe page and sold his own books about missing the 2018 Winter Olympics due to having a herniated disc.[8][10]
Before the games, Crumpton had competed in competitions such as the 2020[12] and 2021 IBSF World Championships[13] to garner points and increase his ranking to qualify for the Winter Games. He garnered 548 points over 13 races[14] for a placement of 29th on the IBSF ranking list, therefore qualifying him for the Winter Games.[15]
Event
The skeleton events were held at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre. For the first and second runs, Crumpton competed on February 10 and recorded a time of 1:02.06 and 1:01.65 respectively. The following day, he recorded a time of 1:01.60 for his third run and thus qualified for a fourth run after placing in the initial top 20. For his last run, he recorded a time of 1:01.49 with a total of 4:06.80 and placed 19th out of the 25 athletes in the event. The eventual winner of the event was Christopher Grotheer of Germany, who recorded a time of 4:01.01.[16][17] After the event, he announced his retirement from skeleton after the 2022 season, further stating "I realize that my days of top 10 World Cups and World Championship finishes are likely behind me", though expressed having fun competing nonetheless.[8]
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