Jamaica’s athletes have long served as beloved ambassadors for the island, capturing the hearts and imaginations of fans all around the world.
This year is no exception. The spotlight is shining on Jamaica’s famed bobsled teams who are in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics with their sleds, goggles, gear and the high hopes from fans.
The Jamaica Tourist Board is sponsoring the island’s bobsled athletes in these Olympics and beyond, according to Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s minister of tourism, who announced the sponsorship at a recent press conference in Jamaica with Chris Stokes, president of the Jamaica Bobsleigh Federation (the words bobsled and bobsleigh are interchangeable), and Olivia Grange, minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport.
“With the Games shining the spotlight brightly upon our bobsleigh athletes, they will serve as Jamaica’s ambassadors to the world and bring additional positive awareness for Jamaica among viewers and sports fans everywhere,” Bartlett said.
Stokes was a member of the original 1988 Jamaican bobsled team in Calgary that attracted a cult international following and inspired the movie “Cool Runnings.” He debuted a song at the press event entitled “Rocket Blasta,” written to celebrate and support Jamaica’s Winter Olympics’ competition.
“I am grateful for the outpouring of support for the team and they are committed to doing well and making Jamaica proud. Jamaica bobsleigh is here to stay,” Stokes said.
The bobsled competitions, including training heats and runs, take place Feb. 11 through 19, and fans can watch the events on NBC, although the time difference means that some coverage will be aired early in the morning or late in the evening. The Games themselves conclude on Feb. 20.
Team Jamaica is competing in three different events: the four-man bobsled, the two-man bobsled and a new event for women in the Olympics called the monobob, a single-person bobsled race in which one athlete does it all: push, leap and drive the icy, curved track.
Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian is Jamaica’s monobob athlete, and she’s up against tough competition from athletes from Germany, Switzerland, the U.S., Canada and Italy, all of whom have won more than one gold medal in World Cup events.
The four-man bobsled team includes pilot Shanwayne Stephens (he is also the pilot on the two-man team); crewmembers Matthew Wepke and Roland Reid; and brakeman Ashley Watson. Nimroy Turgott is the brakeman on the two-men sled.
Turning the heat up in Beijing is the aim for Team Jamaica, but getting this far was remarkable during Covid.
Several team members were competing in European events when Covid shut down borders in March 2020. They were unable to return to Jamaica, and so they created their own training exercises, which included pushing a car up and down a suburban street in England for hours at a time to strengthen their leg and arm muscles.
Stephens spoke by video during Bartlett’s press conference.
“It means a lot to us to qualify for the Games. We’ve worked very hard over the past four years to have achieved what we’ve achieved,” Stephens said.
“You can expect us to go out there and bring the fire and ice and do the absolute best that we can,” he said. “We’re not just a movie; we’re here to compete. I can guarantee that we are going to go off the top of that hill like an absolute rocket.”
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