Lamine Guèye

Who is Lamine Guèye?

Lamine Guèye is a Senegalese skier, and the current president of the Senegalese Ski Federation, which he founded in 1979.

Guèye represented Senegal at the 1984, 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics. He was the first Black African skier to take part in the Olympics, and has taken part twenty-five times in the Alpine skiing World Cup and five times in the Alpine World Ski Championships. He attempted to compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics, but was unable to do so when the qualification events which he was due to take part in were cancelled.

Guèye has been a prominent figure in drawing attention to what he considers to be discriminatory qualification rules for the Winter Olympics, and has written to the International Olympic Committee requesting that all countries be granted the right to participate in the Winter Games, as was the case up to 1992, and as is still the case for the Summer Olympics. In 2001, he published the letter he had sent to Jacques Rogge, stating:

Guèye is the author of Skieur sénégalais cherche esprit olympique.

He has also had a career as a model and an actor, and is the grandson of Senegalese politician Lamine Guèye.