On Halloween day in 2011, Kellie Delka made her first skeleton run on the track at Mt Van Hoevenberg. Like every athlete competing in the recent North American Cup Bobsled and Skeleton competition in Lake Placid, Kellie is on a big, bold journey driven by passion and purpose.
Originally from North Texas, she has represented Puerto Rico the past six years and is one among many athletes at this international sliding competition representing small countries, many of which are not historically known for participation in winter sports.
“Lake Placid has a special place in my heart,” says Kellie. “It’s where I first learned the sport, and I always do really well here. It’s one of my favorite tracks in the world.”
After sliding five years for the United States, she had an irresistible opportunity to move to Puerto Rico, a country working to build their own winter sport program. Competing in the World Cup tour and training for the Olympics isn’t easy for athletes from small nations, but programs in Lake Placid and global development competitions like the North American Cup help them clear hurdles and stay on track to their dreams. In overcoming the hurdles, Kellie qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, making Puerto Rico one of 17 nations competing in the sport.
“It’s hard mentally because like for a long time I was by myself. I would wake up and go to breakfast by myself, go to the track by myself. Everybody’s busy, so I don’t talk to anybody. Then I go back home and eat dinner by myself. But I had to get a World Cup spot, which is really hard, so I stuck it out.”
Then a welcome change came for Kellie. Another small country skeleton athlete, Shannon Galea representing the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, introduced Kellie to her coach, Mike Douglas. “I’m so grateful for even finding Shannon and then her introducing me to Mike. He’s someone who truly loves the sport and just wants to coach. I’m in a better place now, and it definitely shows because I’m sliding happier and doing better.”
A former softball athlete, Shannon has a diverse background in sport, education, and marketing and with a master’s degree in Olympic Studies from the German Sport University in Cologne. “I’m pursuing this sport a little later than most,” she says, “and that’s not easy. What’s important to me is first and foremost having an impact on younger athletes.”
Having traveled the world for years playing professional softball, Shannon not only had the necessary experience but also a powerful vision to work with youth and develop the sport of softball in Europe. In fact, just two years ago, she sent her home team to their first European Championships in Spain, the first time they’d left the island of Malta to compete.
Ready to retire from softball but still feeling strong and fit, Shannon took time to consider what sport she could consider doing at this stage of her life. One in which she could possibly even make it to the Olympics. Skeleton rose to the top of her list, in part because her dad always loved the sliding sports. At the same time, because she considers creating pathways for younger athletes is a personal mission, she reached out to the Maltese Olympic Committee. Given her demonstrated skills and previous work in softball, they trusted Shannon to build their winter sport portfolio while also training to compete in skeleton.
She recalls, “Whenever the Winter Games were on TV, my dad and I would watch luge, skeleton, and bobsled. That was his thing. My parents were not aware that I created the Malta Winter Sports Federation and didn’t even know I was doing skeleton. Then one day they saw me on TV on a podium in Whistler. They were really surprised but are totally bought in now, and they love it.”
Though Malta is especially small, other European countries may seem geographically small to many Americans, yet those county’s populations often possess an oversized passion and expertise in sliding sports. Italy is one of those.
Valentina Margaglio, a former javelin thrower for the Italian National Team, was recruited for the Skeleton Team in 2015 and came to Lake Placid this year for North American Cup.
“I have some good experience now, but my first time down a track was not a good one. My chin scraped the ice, and I finished at the hospital,” says Valentina. In Canada at that time with a flight scheduled a week down the road, Valentina couldn’t just return home. So, she kept at it and says her first actual race was unexpectedly good.
With the Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina in 2026, Valentina is now aiming even higher. “For me the next goal is to win the Olympic Games at home,” she says with a grin. “It’s a big dream, but because it’s still two years away, my ambition is to finish on the podium in front of all my family and friends and the nation I represent. That’s my goal.”
Though the dream so often naturally includes an Olympic medal, for many athletes in these small nation states, it also includes bringing cultures together and building bridges through athletics. It’s part of the passion for the Winter Games that’s easy to overlook.
“For a lot of small nations, doing sport for the love of sport and unity is who we are,” says Kellie. “We drop our lives, sacrifice our time, and dedicate it all to representing our countries in competition. I spent all my 20s in the sport, and now I’m spending my 30s, too. I love it, and even though it’s hard sometimes, I wouldn’t change a thing.”