{"id":14908,"date":"2018-02-12T17:46:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T17:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2018\/02\/12\/maame-biney-came-to-the-u-s-from-ghana-at-5-now-18-shes-a-team-usa-speedskater\/"},"modified":"2018-02-12T17:46:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T17:46:00","slug":"maame-biney-came-to-the-u-s-from-ghana-at-5-now-18-shes-a-team-usa-speedskater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/maame-biney-came-to-the-u-s-from-ghana-at-5-now-18-shes-a-team-usa-speedskater\/","title":{"rendered":"Maame Biney Came To The U.S. From Ghana At 5. Now 18, She's A Team USA Speedskater"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Block<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Maame Biney reacts after winning the women’s 500-meter A final race during the U.S. Olympic short track speedskating trials in December.<\/p>\n

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Rick Bowmer\/AP<\/p>\n

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Rick Bowmer\/AP<\/p>\n

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Remember this name: Maame Biney.<\/a><\/p>\n

The short track speedskater just turned 18; she’s not even out of high school. But she’s already one of the biggest U.S. names at the Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

When Biney won the 500-meter finals at team trials in December<\/a>, with a personal-best time of 43.161 seconds, she became the first African-American woman ever to qualify for a U.S. Olympic speedskating team. (Twenty-five-year-old Erin Jackson is the second, qualifying in long track.) She is competing this week in the women’s 500- and 1,500-meter races in Gangneung, South Korea.<\/p>\n

Biney has a goofy giggle and an electric, nonstop smile. Her game face, though, is something else.<\/p>\n

“It’s not this!” she says. “It’s like, ‘Don’t be in my way, ‘cuz I’m probably gonna kill you!'”<\/p>\n

And with that, realizing she’s blurted something impolitic, she covers her face with her hands and collapses in laughter.<\/p>\n

‘Fierce and strong’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just about everything Biney says ends with her irrepressible teenage giggle. She has a built-in joyfulness that charms everyone she meets, including the U.S. team head coach Anthony Barthell.<\/p>\n