WEST BABYLON — Long Island was still a winter wonderland in the final days of January, nearly a week after a major snowstorm blanketed much of the nation.
Helaina and Henniyah Rivers of West Babylon said they wished they had seen such snow in Argentina last July.
At the time, they were trying to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, as members of Jamaica’s Ski Team. And although July is winter in Argentina, there was only enough snow to compete in one qualifier.
The same problem existed in the U.S. for venues in Colorado and Montana out West, and Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire on the East Coast. None received suitable snow “until really late” in the season, Helaina said.
“That just set the tone for the year,” she explained. “So, it was really difficult not having enough snow to compete or even train.”
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Consequently, the sisters didn’t log enough races to qualify for the Olympics. Still, they’re going with their parents to cheer for their brother, Henri IV, who qualified.
The three Rivers kids are 18-year-old triplets. For much of their lives, they were coached by their dad, lifelong skier Henri III from Jamaica, Queens.
Their mother, Karen, also a coach, is from Jamaica — hence, the triplets’ eligibility to compete on the Caribbean nation’s Olympic team.
The sisters visited with The Tablet on Jan. 30 at their home in West Babylon. Henri IV was absent because he was training in Colorado with his Jamaican teammates.
Helaina and Henniyah described a life of athletic commitments, including travel to compete in Alpine skiing events, training, and qualifying. When asked about the recent snowfall across the U.S., Helaina mused, “It’s about time,” knowing that it was still too late for the sisters to squeeze in a few more qualifying races.
“We’re always chasing snow,” Henniyah said. “I wish it was a little earlier, but you know, we just have to think, like, that’s how Mother Nature works.”
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The sisters’ “long-game” mentality attests to their commitment to keep skiing competitively. Even though they won’t ski at this year’s Olympics, they and their brother have qualified for the 2026 International Ski and Snowboard Alpine Junior Ski Championships, scheduled for March 5-15 in Narvik, Norway.
They don’t plan to stop there.
“The next four years are just to prepare for the next Olympics,” Helaina said.
Karen said it is a wonderful feeling to see the triplets connect with her homeland as members of its ski team. She was born in Jamaica but spent her childhood in Brooklyn, where she attended Catholic schools.
The triplets have traveled to Jamaica since they were 8 months old.
“It’s always good to be able to have that connection, besides just saying, ‘Oh, my mother is from there,’ ” Karen said. “They know Jamaica. To be able to represent it and to allow other young children to see the possibilities, it’s awesome.”
Before moving to Long Island, the family lived in Brooklyn, where they belonged to Our Lady of Charity Parish in Brownsville, under the pastorship of Father James Goode, known as the “dean” of black Catholic preaching when he died in 2022.
The Catholic faith has always “grounded” the triplets, their mother said, during their educations in public and private boarding schools near ski areas, where they could develop their Olympic-caliber skills.
“They were raised with God in their lives,” Karen said, “and it made a difference in how they looked at others and how they perceived their successes.”
The sisters confirmed that faith helped them navigate adversity.
“Just having Mass can help you become a better person,” Henniyah said. “It definitely helped us in sports, too. It kept us calm. And no matter if you’re going through a hard time, you can always pray about it and get yourself back into your normal mindset.”
The sisters described how their love for the sport was nurtured by their parents, especially their dad, who took up skiing as a kid in the 1960s and 1970s on the snowy mountains of upstate New York.
“He didn’t have as much opportunity back then,” Henniyah explained. “But he had an idea: he wanted to share his passion with his children. He brought us onto the snow in upstate New York, and we fell in love with skiing.
“Then we started racing when we were 5, and we’ve just been racing ever since.”
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Henri III said 1% of the population skiing today is people of color, so in the 1970s, it was maybe just a tenth of a percent.
Consequently, he noted that information about the sport wasn’t commonly shared in his community. Skiing for him thus became a self-taught skill.
“I would just follow behind the kids who skied well to try to become as proficient as they were,” Henri III said. “I did not know about ski academies. I found those out as I started my coaching career, and I made sure to open that pathway for my kids and other kids.”
Henri III estimated that he coached about 300 youthful skiers, and very few of them were black. Still, he thrives on sharing the sport with everyone.
“I don’t care if you’re a good skier or a bad skier,” he said. “It doesn’t matter because when you ski, it’s just enjoyment.”
Henri III proudly shared how the triplets have pledged to one day take their own children skiing.
“That’s just because skiing is such a great sport,” he said. “And it’s a family sport. It’s not like basketball, football, or anything that you just watch on TV. The whole family skis together.
“You’re out in the open, outdoors, and just enjoying nature.”
