Henri Rivers is a native New Yorker and an avid skier and outdoor enthusiast for over 50 years. He is a professional ski instructor, certified master teacher, eastern alpine trainer, and children’s specialist as well as a U.S. Ski & Snowboard alpine coach, jury advisor, referee, official and USASA coach. He coached in the alpine race program and the Skier cross program at Windham Mountain in the Catskill region of New York since 2001.
Henri became involved with the National Brotherhood of Skiers in 1996 and has held many positions within the organization. He started as the club president of the International Sisterhood of Skiers and Athletes, (ISSA) and moved on to become the Mid-West Regional Competition Director. Henri has been a long-time member of the Jazz-Ma-Tazz ski and social club in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2001 he became a coach for the national team of NBS and in 2008 was appointed the Olympic Scholarship Fund Administrator. During his tenure as OSF administrator he grew the national team to 15 athletes. In 2016 he was appointed the National Competition Director and in 2018 was nominated from the floor and voted in as the Executive Vice President of the National Brotherhood of Skiers. He served for two years and in March of 2020 he was elected National President of the NBS. During his current presidency, 2020-2024 Team NBS has grown to 29 athletes in multiple disciplines, Free ski, Moguls, Snowboard as well as Alpine. Club membership has risen to 58 clubs and our winter outreach programs have grown to 13 clubs with a granted budget just under $500,000.00. During The 51st Summit Henri was reelected to another four-year term as president of The National Brotherhood of Snowsports, 2024-2028.
Henri’s self-proclaimed greatest achievement is his family, married to Karen Rivers a native of the Island Nation of Jamaica and the proud father of four including the NBS “Famous” Rivers’ triplets, Helaina, Henri IV and Henniyah. After Karen was introduced to skiing in the late nineties, they decided that their children would be raised in an outdoor focused environment. The triplets enjoyed the outdoors and took to ski racing. Helaina, Henri IV and Henniyah are now all going into their 2nd year as FIS racers both Henniyah Rivers and Henri Rivers IV have represented their mother’s home nation of Jamaica in the 2024 Youth Olympic Games, in Gangwon, South Korea.
Henri looks to the future when his children will represent his home nation of the United States and all the athletes of color striving to become elite level athletes.