21 Under 21: Olympic Athlete Maame Biney Made History, Went Viral, and Now Goes to College

Maame Biney is part of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 class of 2018, which spotlights extraordinary young women, girls, and femmes making waves in their industries or passions of choice.

In 2017, at just 17 years old, Maame Biney became the first black woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic speed skating team. After that, her story went viral as millions of people across an endless number of platforms watched Maame make history.

Now, almost a year later, Maame is 18 years old and in her first semester of college at the University of Utah. So far, things seem to be working out: “I like making my own decisions, and finding time for myself to do the things that I wanna do or that I need to do..." she says. "And the things I need to do always come first, like school.” She’s currently balancing classes, friends, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the one extracurricular she can fit into her schedule. Not to mention, she’s skating on the U.S. national team, in part because the University of Utah doesn’t have one — though, she says, it “would be great if they did, because I could skate for them and then get that free tuition.”

Maame confides that her schedule “never stops — it keeps coming!” But despite the pressure of being a student and a professional athlete, Maame is a pretty regular teenager. Like many of us, her favorite athlete is Serena Williams: “I wanna meet her one day," Maame says. "I would freak out!” In her limited free time, she’s been rewatching all of her fave Psych episodes. And her favorite thing about college? “The independence. I’m able to go to class or go somewhere without telling my dad. I can just go, and I really like that.”

She credits her father, Kweku Biney, with helping her ignore the haters, for lack of a better phrase. To those who doubt her, Maame is gracious but focused: “Thank you for your opinion, but please get out of my way so I can go skate.”

Twenty-one years from now may seem far away (it is), but Maame is prepared for the future. “I’ll do a lot more than be an Olympian and get that gold medal,” she says. Aside from having a “family and a good job,” Maame looks forward to giving back and changing lives. She hopes to “help younger kids who are in need and don’t have the opportunities that I was so grateful to have.”

Her advice for young women, “especially for women athletes," Maame says, is "any woman that wants to be successful: You’re so much stronger than you know.”