Jamaican bobsled team to keep Cool Runnings tradition alive at Beijing Olympics
Even in the highest-pressure moments, Jamaican bobsleigh brakeman Nimroy Turgott will have a smile on his face and a song to sing.
“Jamaica bobsleigh, we bring the damage,” Turgott will sing, to lighten the mood. “Winning for free, early morning curry, sipping the tea, blacket with the jacket, push out the sled, ‘who am I?’ Superkong, down every bobsled track.”
With two taps from pilot Shanwayne Stephens, the Jamaican men’s team pushes out of the start, charging down the track in the fastest sport on ice, racing against powerhouse nations like Canada, Germany, and Latvia.
The Jamaican bobsled team is going back to the Olympics, with the four-man squad recently qualifying for the Winter Games for the first time in 24 years. The other two members of the team aren’t confirmed yet, but will consist of two of Ashley Watson, Rolando Reid, and Matthew Wepke.
BREAKING:
JAMAICA, WE HAVE A BOBSLED TEAM HEADING TO BEIJING! 📣
It will be fire on ice as #TeamJamaica 🇯🇲 secured their spot at the 2022 Beijing #WinterOlympics. This will be the 1st time JAM has qualified in 3 Olympic bobsled events: four-man, two-man and women’s monobob pic.twitter.com/hRd5h7lDlG
— Team Jamaica (@TeamJA876) January 17, 2022
“It’s an awesome feeling. All the hard work, the ups and downs, the injuries, it makes it all worthwhile,” said Stephens, who will pilot the team in Beijing. “Seeing your name on that list and to say that we’ve made it is absolutely amazing.”
Cool Runnings was the story about the Jamaican bobsled team qualifying for the Olympics for the first time at Calgary 1988, but Jamaica has come a long way since the 1993 film was released. Jamaica has regularly raced on the North American, European, and World Cup stages ever since.
Jamaica still doesn’t have any snow to speak of, let alone a bobsleigh track on the Caribbean island. The country is loaded with track and field stars though, which is the summer sport their present day bobsledders came from.
Since Calgary, Jamaica has become a constant presence, qualifying sliding athletes for every Olympics since, outside of Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010. They have not qualified a four-man sled since Nagano 1988.
“The first time I ever saw snow was in Whistler”
For Turgott, a brakeman, it was a track meet that led him to bobsleigh and now the Olympics. The Jamaican Bobsleigh Federation saw his powerful running and recruited him into bobsleigh, inviting him to a training camp in Whistler, widely considered to be the world’s fastest track.
“The first time I ever saw snow was in Whistler, and I walked up the first day, and they said I need to observe and learn the track, and I said ‘is that right?’” Turgott told Daily Hive about his first experience.
The next day, he was in a bobsleigh going from the top of the Whistler Sliding Centre, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic venue.
”When I came out of the sled, I said, ‘what am I doing here? I’m from a tropical country, and two days later I’m going down a bobsleigh in the fastest track in the world, this is crazy,’” he said.
From British Royal Air Force to Jamaican bobsled
Stephens never thought he would be an Olympian. A British Royal Air Force member, he first saw bobsleigh in 2015 when a poster at work promoted the RAF’s opportunity. At that point, the Olympics were not even a thought.
“I emailed them, and I went to a trial with sprints and standing long jumps, and a week later, I got a call telling me that I was going to race bobsleigh in the inter-service competition,” he said. “I was going to race for the RAF against the Navy bobsleighs.”
Stephens, 31, grew up in Jamaica and moved to the UK as a teenager, yet in 2017, he got a call from his birth country to go to Calgary for a trial with the Jamaican program.
He was only supposed to spend a few weeks in Calgary, but impressed and stuck with the team through 2017 as they drove towards PyeongChang 2018, missing Olympic qualification by a single spot in the IBSF World Ranking.
When the UK shut down gyms at the beginning of the pandemic, Stephens and his teammates pushed cars through England, doing anything to stay prepared for the next season.
Jamaican bobsleigh team push a car around the streets of an English city to stay in shape, with an eye on Olympic qualification https://t.co/h8cZs2b06L pic.twitter.com/OwEgB5Vllw
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 3, 2020
“It’s nice to sort of come back now and make these Games; I went through the next cycle, I got into the front seat of the sled, and now we’ve qualified.”
“We’re going out there to win a medal”
The crew spent the four-year qualifying quad racing around the world, putting themselves up against the best teams, but there is often help in bobsleigh despite the sizzling competition. The Jamaicans know they don’t have the best equipment, using old sleds from Canada and the UK, but the bobsleigh world wants them there.
“I think the main thing about bobsleigh is everyone wants to see the sport grow and to have more people come to the sport and enjoy the sport, and for that to happen, you need more people to enjoy it, so the top athletes have been awesome,” said Stephens.
Even with qualification confirmed, Stephens and Turgott are reserved in their excitement for the Games. The Beijing Olympics are far from ordinary. At this point, a positive COVID-19 test disqualifies athletes from the games, no going back.
“The first competition is who can get there; it’s literally a matter of who can get there without catching COVID,” said Stephens. “Even though we’ve qualified, there’s that worry that could take it away from us.”
After qualifying through races in North America, the Jamaican team travelled to Europe to race the season’s final World Cup in St. Mortiz as final preparation for the Olympics, but Stephens tested positive, forcing the team to miss the race.
When the Jamaican team stands atop the bobsleigh track at Beijing 2022, they will be far from the rookie group that raced in 1988.
This is an experienced team and one that is there to compete.
“Everyone wants to go to the Games to win a medal, so I’m going to say that we’re going out there to win a medal,” Stephens said. “Why not? You’ve got to be there to be in it to win it, and we’re there, so we’re going to go and try and win a medal.”
While winning a medal might be a lofty goal, the team has a more realistic target of beating the best Jamaican Olympic finish of 14th. Still, the message from ‘Cool Runnings’ rings true.
“Never be afraid to give something unorthodox a go,” said Stephens. “I never thought I would be a bobsledder, but look at us now; we’re about to be bobsleigh Olympians. Never be afraid to give something a go and attack everything.”
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