Shannon-Ogbani Abeda: An Olympic landmark for Eritrea

here have been 22 previous editions of the Olympic Winter Games, which between them have welcomed nearly 30,000 athletes from around 100 different NOCs. None of those athletes has come from the African nation of Eritrea – until now. Meet Shannon-Ogbani Abeda who, six years after representing Eritrea at the Winter YOG Innsbruck 2012, tonight carried his country's flag at an Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony for the very first time.

From Eritrea to Alberta

Abeda's long journey to the Olympic Winter Games began with an even longer journey made by his parents during the Eritrean War of Independence. Eritrea became an independent sovereign state in the early 1990s but Abeda's parents, Ariam and Walday, had fled the troubles as teenagers during the 1980s. The pair eventually settled as refugees in the Canadian province of Alberta, and gave birth to Shannon-Ogbani in 1996.

Abeda grew up in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, a hotbed of ski culture. Like many Canadians, though, Abeda's first choice of sport was his adopted country's national pastime: ice hockey.