Puerto Rico has one athlete on the 2026 Winter Olympics.
And Kellie Delka got here ready for the second.
Delka is making her second look within the Winter Olympics, having represented Puerto Rico in the course of the 2022 Winter Video games in Beijing. She is a skeleton slider who completed twenty fourth on the 2022 video games, and completed twenty fourth on the 2025 World Championships in Lake Placid.
She showcased her customized swimsuit, paying tribute to Puerto Rico, throughout coaching runs forward of the skeleton competitors in Milano Cortina:
Delka’s path to the Winter Olympics — and Puerto Rico — is an unconventional one. She was born in Texas, and attended North Texas the place she ran monitor and was a cheerleader. However after her school days had been over, she moved to Puerto Rico, with an eye fixed on winter sports activities.
“My journey to changing into an Olympian wasn’t essentially the most conventional one. Rising up, I used to be a monitor athlete and cheerleader on the College of North Texas, and whereas I thrived in these sports activities, I all the time craved one thing extra intense, one thing that pushed me to my absolute limits,” says Delka on her official web site. “Skeleton grew to become that ‘one thing.’ It’s not only a sport—it’s my ardour, my function, and my approach of displaying what’s doable while you go all in on a dream.
“Representing Puerto Rico on the world stage fills me with a lot satisfaction. I reside right here, prepare right here, and carry the colourful spirit of the island with me each time I step onto the monitor. Competing within the Olympics was a dream come true, and now, I’m chasing a good larger one: qualifying for my second Olympics and bringing residence the primary medal for Puerto Rico from the Winter Video games. It’s a journey full of challenges, sacrifices, and triumphs, and I wouldn’t have it some other approach.”
Delka’s determination to compete for Puerto Rico, and never the USA, has include some criticism. She defined her determination to compete for Puerto Rico on social media forward of the 2026 Winter Video games:
“I do reside in Puerto Rico,” she says. “I prepare in Puerto Rico full-time… It (is perhaps) complicated that I’m right here. It saddens me to see individuals not accepting of me representing, as a result of I really feel I’m doing it in essentially the most genuine approach.”
The following step on that journey comes with the official skeleton competitors later this week.
