'Representation is everything:' Black Olympians hope to inspire in Beijing

Elladj Baldé calls it the video that forever changed his life.

The Canadian figure skater is turning circles across a frozen, deserted Lake Minnewanka outside Banff, Alta. His Chicago Bulls bomber jacket is flapping open, his hair's tucked up under a black tuque. His arms are outstretched, his face turned up to the sun. His blades carve perfect circles like a Spirograph on the untouched ice.

The video propelled Baldé to online stardom, providing him a vehicle to express his love for skating and connect with new audiences.

As a biracial figure skater, Baldé spent much of his career trying to fit a mould in one of the Winter Olympics' stuffier sports.

"The pressure to conform was intense, and it was conveyed subconsciously to me throughout my journey — being rewarded for using certain music, dressing a certain way and skating with a certain style," Baldé said. "For the most part, each of these elements were inauthentic to who I truly am.

Baldé said when he missed making the 2014 Sochi Olympic squad by one spot, and then missed the podium at the Canadian championships in 2015 — despite a standing ovation for his free program — his entire identity and self-worth was shattered.

Baldé is working for the CBC at the Beijing Olympics, which fall during Black History Month. And while there are no stats on the percentage athletes who identify as Black, Indigenous or a person of colour (BIPOC) — the Canadian team, for example, received few returns on an optional survey — it's painfully obvious, the prevailing face of the Games is white.

Keegan Messing caught up with <a href="https://twitter.com/elladjbalde?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elladjbalde</a> after his absolutely beautiful short program