BOBSLEIGH 1988: An entirely new ballgame for Jamaica
Jamaica is not the first tropical or warm weather country to compete at the Winter Olympics but no one can deny that it is surely among the most popular.
The exploits of the first Jamaican Winter Olympians at Calgary, Canada, in 1988 inspired the Disney film 'Cool Runnings' and the experiences of the original Jamaican bobsledders were screened to a worldwide audience.
In addition, Jamaica was already an established brand in the Olympic movement. Since 1948, Olympians such as Arthur Wint, Herb McKenley, George Rhoden, Les Laing, Lennox Miller, Donald Quarrie, Merlene Ottey, Grace Jackson and Juliet Cuthbert, with their performances on the track, had lifted Jamaica to a status far beyond its size.
The Winter Games were, however, something new and dangerous and showcasing the country's athletic talent on ice was an entirely new ballgame.
Nothing that happened in the country's previous sporting history, before or after independence, could prepare Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris, Michael White, Freddy Powell and Casewell Allen for the challenges ahead, starting with Calgary in 1988. In fact, less than a week before competition started, Allen got injured and Chris Stokes, who was only at the Games as a spectator to see his brother in competition, was drafted into the team. Chris, who had never been in bobsleigh before, had less than a week to prepare for a dangerous mission.
Earlier, the idea of Jamaica fielding a team for the Winter Games was developed by the late American businessman George Fitch and his friend, William Maloney, both from Virginia. And the idea had its genesis right here in Jamaica. Fitch had been impressed by the skills shown by drivers in the then very popular annual pushcart derby and felt that, with training, these skills could be transferred to ice.
The Jamaica Olympic Association bought into and encouraged the idea. Recruitment, however, proved difficult and they turned to the army where two elite officers, Dudley Stokes and Devon Harris, both trained at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, England, were among the first to put their hands up. Harris, in fact, had a strong track and field background and even had plans to make the Jamaican team to the Los Angeles Summer Games four years earlier. Then in later years athletes with strong track and field backgrounds were to form the backbone of Jamaica's bobsled teams.
Overall Jamaica's performances at the Winter Games have not been spectacular. Medals have been missing from the six Games - 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2014 - Jamaica has competed in. In 1994, however, at Lillehammer, Norway, Jamaica stunned the world by finishing 14th in the four-man bobsled. The members of that team were Chris Stokes, Dudley Stokes, Wayne Thomas and Winston Watt.
While no medals have been won by Jamaicans under the National Flag, Lascelles Brown, in 2006, became the first Jamaica-born competitor to win a medal at the Winter Olympics when he collected silver in the two-man event at the Turin Games in 2006. Brown was a brakesman for Winston Watt at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and three years later changed his nationality after he married a Canadian. He went on to win a second medal, a bronze, as a member of a Canadian four-man team in 2010.
The men were the pioneers but Jamaican women have also made their marks on the ice. Porscha Morgan and Wynsome Cole were the first two Jamaican Women to compete in the bobsleigh event. They won titles at the World Push Championships in 2001 and 2002 but their progress was stunted by constant injuries to Cole. Kaymarie Jones and Salcia Slack, a former heptathlon competitior from Holmwood Technical, are now the two leading lights along with Carrie Russell, a sprint relay gold medallist from the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.
Highlights
Two-man bobsled
1988: Calgary - 30th
1992: Albertville - 35th
1994: Lillehammer - Disqualified
1998: Nagano - 29th
2002: Salt Lake City - 28th
2014: Sochi - 29th
Four-man bobsled
1988: Calgary - Did not finish
1992: Albertville - 25th
1994 - Lillehammer - 14th
1998 - Nagano - 21st
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