Jamaican Bobsled Team

It was in the 1980’s when two Americans named William Maloney and George Fitch were instrumental in forming the Jamaica Bobsled Team. While on a visit to the islands they witnessed a derby with pushcarts and realized that it had some similarities with bobsledding.

The sports require persons who had a fast start so they decided to scout for some sprinters and Jamaica had them in abundance. However, they soon realized that it was not as easy as they thought because after the first recruitment session they realized there was not much interest.

They figured that if they utilized the sprinters who were world class they could make this work, but the athletes were not interested. They did not give up on the idea and their next step was to approach the Jamaican army and presented the plan to Ken Barnes who was the Colonel at the time.

This was where it started as they managed to recruit four persons who were willing to take on this challenge. The first members of the team were Devon Harris, who was a lieutenant in the army’s second battalion; Dudley Stokes captain of the Jamaica Defense Force Air Wing; Samuel Clayton who was a railway engineer and Michael White who was a member of the National Reserves. A coach was brought over from New York, his name was Howard Siler.

These four brave hearts made their first debut at the Winter Olympics that was held in 1988 at Calgary, Alberta. This was history in the making as persons anxiously watch to see these athletes who were contenders in a sport and they did not even have an ounce of snow on the island. They had some big fans who were warmhearted as they watched these young men from the warm Caribbean Island attempting to create glory at the Olympics.

They did not achieve much at their first attempt as they lose control, sled and crashed; never getting a chance to finish. Jamaicans are proud people and strive to success at all times, after crashing they got out the sled and walked head high to the finish line. This created a significant impact on everyone watching as there was a rousing applause for these true sports men.

For just taking part in the winter games and the way that they portrayed themselves they inspired many persons. To the extent that a major film was made which was called “Cool Runnings” and featured John Candy as the coach for the team. The characters used were all fictional but they tried to capture the essence as much as possible, there were even some footage that was original from the crash.

The dream did not end there for Jamaican bobsled team as they returned to the 1992 Olympics held in Albertville, France. They were now more confident and showed some improvement as they impressed the many observers with fast starts. The first Olympics were viewed as a novelty that featured numerous technical injuries, difficulty and crashes. But this second Olympics had more spirit and drive and although they were not highly placed they showed improvements.

They were back at the games again four years later, this time the Winter Olympics was held in Lillehammer, Norway. This was a more focused and confident four man team who practiced real hard and come to give it their best and they shocked many of the critics as they placed 14th. The big surprise was not the placing but the fact that they had beaten teams such as United States, Russian, Italy and France.

The bobsled team kept going and at one stage they had a two man team which placed tenth, further shocking the world as they had beaten the national champions from Sweden. There was no stopping this team as they continued to grow and improve and enter in many events in 2000; this time they won a gold medal in Monte Carlo. This was a World Push Championships where they took part in three events.

Jamaican bobsled team has created such an impact in this sport that had a phenomenon impact on many persons all over the world even in present years. What makes it more interesting is that they are from a tropical island and they showed so much hard work and determination as a team.