Eagle Scout triplets set their sights on the 2026 Winter Olympics

Next, they’re hoping to go worldwide.

The siblings, 18, recently received the Community Leadership Award from their local sheriff’s department for becoming a rare set of Black triplets to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

Now they’ve got their sights set on the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. The triplets are accomplished alpine skiers, each with a solid chance of representing their mother’s home country of Jamaica at the Olympics.

“Being triplets, a lot of the things we’ve done, we’ve done together,” says Henri. “It’s really special.”

When people think of winter sports, Jamaica might not be the country that first comes to mind. Since the Jamaica national bobsleigh team rose to fame in the 1988 Winter Games, Winter Olympic athletes from the country have been few and far between.

Jamaica sent its first-ever alpine skier to the Winter Olympics in 2022.

“One of the true goals is to inspire more kids from Jamaica,” Henri says.

Skiing and Scouting

Karen Rivers moved to the United States from Jamaica when she was a child. She took up snow skiing when, as a young adult, she met Henri Rivers III, a native New Yorker and an avid skier.

Then came the triplets, and Karen and Henri III decided they wanted their children to grow up spending lots of time outdoors. That included skiing and, eventually, Scouting.

Henri IV joined Scouting America as a Cub Scout, and his sisters would often tag along at family campouts. He later crossed over into Troop 43 in Bay Shore, N.Y. In 2019, the girls became some of the founding members of Troop 43G, which would later become Troop 430.

As competitive skiing took up more and more of their time, the siblings remained dedicated to their Scouts BSA troops and to their shared goal of earning the rank of Eagle Scout.

“As we started ranking up over the years, we decided we might as well finish what we started,” says Henniyah.

For their Eagle Scout service projects, the triplets each led a separate project to restore and beautify the town hall area in Brightwaters, N.Y.

Helaina led a group of volunteers that replaced the town flagpole.

Henniyah led a team that installed new pavestones and flower boxes around the flagpole.

And Henri led a group that installed new benches.

“All the hard work paid off,” Henniyah says. “It was worth all the work we’d done.”

“You drive by and you look and you see the flagpole and benches, and it still catches your eye,” says Helaina.

Now the triplets serve as mentors for younger Scouts interested in learning more about what it takes to earn the rank of Eagle.

The road to Milan-Cortina

Like most youth sports, the world of competitive skiing is almost a full-time job in and of itself. The Rivers siblings, recent high school graduates, are taking the next few months to focus on their goal of qualifying for the 2026 Winter Games.

Henri IV and Henniyah competed at the 2024 Youth Olympics, where Henri was the flag bearer for Jamaica. There, they gained valuable experience in navigating the process of qualifying for the 2026 Games. Helaina missed the event due to injury, but all three have a decent shot at becoming Jamaica’s second, third and fourth alpine skiers ever to compete in the Winter Olympics.

It’s a long, grueling process, and any one of the trio could qualify this fall, depending on how they perform in a series of upcoming international competitions, or as late as January 2026, just weeks before the Olympics start.

After that will come college. Henri will study sports management at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. He hopes to one day be CEO of a ski resort.

Henniyah and Helaina will attend Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. Henniyah will study criminal justice and criminology with the hopes of becoming a lawyer. Helaina will study environmental science and aquatic science with a minor in Spanish.

Whether they make it to Milan-Cortina or not, the Rivers siblings say they hope they’ve inspired others to set big goals and think outside their comfort zone.

“We hope,” says Henniyah, “that we’ve opened doors to other people who’d like to do this.”

Photos courtesy of the Rivers family. Follow the Rivers siblings on their journey to Milan-Cortina, and beyond, on their Facebook and Instagram channels.