The Jamaican Bobsled at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

The Hottest Things On Ice

It’s been 34 years since Jamaica, a small Caribbean island of just 2.9 million people, with a tropical climate, debuted its four-man bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta. This tropical island nation captured the imaginations of the world when its four-man bobsled team made history which inspired the movie, Kool Runnings – Yea mon! The Summer Olympic Games have been dominated by Caribbean athletes in Track and Field, especially sprint icons from jamaica like Usain Bolt, the fastest human of all times, and Elain Thompson-Hera, the fastest woman alive just to mention a couple.

Now, Jamaica is charging down the track in the fastest sport on ice with their eyes set on the prize, though racing against powerhouse nations like Canada, Germany, and Latvia. The scope has been broadening, and these tropical islanders of the Caribbean realize that sport is not restricted by boundaries of country or climate, but is limitless because of the fighting spirit of its people.  For the first time in its history, The Jamaican bobsled team qualifies for 3 separate events at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. It all started back in the mid-80s in the beautiful island of Jamaica where the tropical weather is like summer all year-round. 

The Original Jamaican Team That Inspires Kool Runnings

Members of the original, legendary, Jamaican Bobsled team, Devon Harris, Michael White, and Chris Stokes, inspired by Push Cart Derby in Jamaica, caught a vision of representing Jamaica at the Winter Games. The road to Calgary was not easy, but these guys had a fire in their guts that drove them to Olympic Glory. The training began on the grounds of the Jamaican Defence Force in Kingston, with steadfastness and determination, they made up in their mind that they would give it all it takes to achieve their goals of representing their country at this winter sport. For months, They practiced their push-start in a push-cart on a flat surface on the military base in Jamaica, then headed to Calgary months in advance to begin training on a real track and in a real sleigh.  Eventually, they traveled to Austria to compete in a few minor events before the Olympics. Amazingly, they qualified for the 1988 Calgary games and were well on their way to Olympic Glory!. 

When they got to Canada, they did not even have a sled, but their drive and determination paved the way.

In Calgary, Dudley Stokes and Michael White first competed in the two-man event, finishing 30th out of 41 teams. In the four-man event, they were joined by Devon Harris and Chris Stokes, Dudley’s brother, who — is a truly unbelievable twist — had only come to Canada to support his sibling but was asked to step in after another teammate injured himself. 

Chris, who was studying for his MBA at Washington State University and had been a college sprinter, had just three days of training before competing in the Olympics. The team had an impressive third run (the seventh fastest start in the field) before it ended in a dangerous crash. They walked to the finish line, and the crowd cheered, as they pushed the sled across the finish line. 

It’s that spirit — fighting to break new ground while knowing you’ve already done enough, win or lose.  

The Jamaican Women Bobsled Team

The Jamaican Bobsled history continues In 2018, when a Jamaican women’s sled debuted at the Olympics, driven by 2014 U.S. Olympian Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian. 

Jamaica’s Carrie Russell won the third event of the Women’s Monobob World Series Bobsleigh at Park City, Utah in January 2021. Since 1988, the Jamaican men bobsled team has continued to improve as a team. In 1994, they finished 14th ahead of both the American teams, the Russians, and the French. The Jamaicans took home the gold medal in the 2001 World Push Championships. However, this is the first time since qualifying for the 1988 games in Calgary, that Jamaica will send a four-man sled team to the games, plus a two-man bobsled team, plus the women’s mono-bob event, also for the first time.

Shanwayne Stephens, who grew up in Jamaica, moved to the UK as a teenager, and is a lance corporal in the British Royal Air Force, he will be piloting the four-man bobsled for Team Jamaica in the 2022 Games. 

Shanwayne, told ABC, “It’s been a lot of struggles over the last four years to achieve what we’ve achieved and we’ve done absolutely everything in our power and everybody’s come together as one team to be able to qualify for the games,” 

Preparing in warm weather was only half the battle for the team, as they had to train during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shanwayne, along with Nimroy Turgott, who is expected to be the team’s brakeman Unorthodox training regiment come up with “ingenious” ways of ensuring that they could still strength-train while gyms were closed in the UK. 

“The pandemic has not made it easy for anybody to train because of all the restrictions,” Shanwayne told Insider. “So we ended up creating a home gym in my back garden out of timber and making cement weights out of buckets and stuff.” 

They caught the attention of the public during the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns, practicing by pushing Shanwayne’s girlfriend’s Mini Cooper car up and down a residential road of the English city of Peterborough.

“We did get some funny looks. We’ve had people run over, thinking the car’s broken down, trying to help us bump-start the car. When we told them we’re the Jamaica bobsleigh team, the direction is totally different, and they were very excited for us. We want to show the world that Jamaica still can compete in winter sports, although we’re a beautiful island in the Caribbean, “said Turgott. “We want to show the world what we can do.”

Succeeding in the sport requires a combination of strength, power, and agility

According to Pat Brown, who has been working with the team…

The sled weighs hundreds of kilograms, travels at more than 130 kilometers per hour down an icy chute, and clocks up “four to five Gs” on some corners. 

“They need to be strong enough in the upper body to be able to push and to be flexible because they need to bend up like little bananas in the sled.” She continues “the tension the athletes applied to their bodies to prevent them from being flung out was “full-on” but their passion and love of the sport outweighed the fear of being injured. “Plus that determination to achieve their goal is far greater than any fear that they have.”

With that determination and their sense of belonging in the sport, anything is possible.

The fact that team Jamaica kept showing up at the Winter Games … there’s a lot of respect from a lot of the other athletes,” she said.

“There’s no feeling of them being the underdog … there’s just this feeling of, ‘You guys deserve to be here just as much as everyone else’.

According to Team Jamaica.  “With the qualification of all our men’s team and the women in Monobob. This will be Jamaica’s biggest bobsleigh team at any Winter Olympics for Jamaica 

 It will be FIRE on ice!  “Jamaica – Wi Likkle but wi tallawah”  

We’re A small island with a big heart!

While Shanwayne said that their main goal is going for gold in Beijing, a sequel to Cool Runnings based on their success there would be “pretty cool” too, he added. In addition to the bobsled teams, a Jamaican skier also qualified for Alpine skiing in this year’s winter games.

The Jamaican Skiiers

Benjamin Alexander, a former financial professional, and DJ is the first Jamaica Alpine skier to qualify for the winter games representing the sunny island, in just six years after first trying the sport. A great accomplishment Benjamin! Alexander is the second skier to represent Jamaica at the Winter Games following Errol Kerr who finished ninth in the Ski Cross at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. The coaching staff and the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation must also be congratulated for the work that they are doing to prepare the athletes to compete on the ice.  The Jamaica Bobsleigh and skeleton team continues to inspire persons around the world to achieve much more than their environment would suggest.

Jamaican Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, says “Jamaica’s team to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China demonstrates that nothing is impossible.” For a country that doesn’t have snow, Jamaica keeps breaking new ground by competing against the world’s best on ice,” 

“This generation — and others to come — will look up to you and be inspired by you because of your unlikely presence at the Winter Games representing a tropical country and doing well.”

“You are stories of dedication and commitment filled with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Your hard work has already paid off”. she added. Here at Jirie Caribbean, we salute the team and wish them all the very best in Beijing, China this winter! “The entire Caribbean is extremely proud of your accomplishment and will be cheering you on as you compete in the Winter Olympics,” 

Rooted firmly in the values of excellence and adventure of the original Cool Runnings team, current athletes continue to excel and do exceptionally well in this still unlikely sport for Jamaica.

You can support the Jamaican Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation by clicking on their Facebook link below. https://www.facebook.com/JBSFED  

Did You Know?

The critically acclaimed movie Cool Runnings was a box office success in 1993, grossing $155 million on only a $17 million budget. The movie also reached number 3 during its release and has become a classic in the years since.