Jamaica's dream bobsleigh team: "Asafa Powell would be the driver with Usain Bolt at the back"
The Jamaica men's bob athletes at Beijing 2022 reveal which track stars they'd love to see try out for their team, and why some "Cool Runnings" comparisons still ring true today.
Bobsleigh
Imagine how fast a Jamaican men's bobsleigh could go with Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, and Asafa Powell in the engine room. What about a monobob or two-woman sled including Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shericka Jackson, or Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce?
While some think that the track athletics stars would potentially struggle to transfer their speed to the ice, the actual Jamaican bobsleigh team who are currently competing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, beg to differ.
"I trained with most of them back home in Jamaica, like Asafa Powell, Shelly-Ann Fraser,” brakeman Nimroy Turgott told Olympics.com. “I definitely asked Asafa Powell at one point if he was considering it, but someone showed him a video and changed his mind!
“Yohan Blake is extremely, extremely powerful. Powell would have been the driver. Then Bolt at the back.
“Elaine Thompson is the fastest woman alive. Natasha Morrison, Shericka Jackson, I can go on and on.
“But I still think those guys would be a wonderful asset to our team if we can get those top end track and field stars, we would appreciate and welcome them to our team.”
Unlike those athletics champions, just getting to the Olympics was a struggle for the bobsledders.
For starters, there was the COVID pandemic, which prevented the athletes from training together.
Then there was the not-so-small matter of the cost of the equipment and sleds needed to compete.
But with the help of donations and a crowd-funding campaign, the team managed to get to China.
“It's been an extremely tough four year cycle for us,” pilot and U.K. RAF serviceman Shanwayne Stephens told Olympics.com. “We're a small nation and we achieve great things from little resources.
“The first time our team really came together was 18 September last year due to COVID.”
Comparisons to the iconic movie Cool Runnings are hard to escape for the team in China.
Mostly because 34 years after the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics, where the Jamaica bobsleigh team made its debut, a lot of the original messages and themes still ring true.
“The movie depicts somewhat of a struggle to get to qualify for the Games, and it's been nothing short of that this season,” Jamaica bobsleigh athlete Rolando Reid said. “The movie depicted our struggle with equipment for the most part because it’s a really expensive sport. So I think it has a good depiction of what we endure.”
Ultimately, however, this is not a team that feels sorry for itself.
With the biggest smiles wherever they are, they are determined to do more than just make up the numbers at Beijing 2022.
“We're the fire and ice, because saying that we are from a tropical island with sunny temperature,” Turgott concluded on the team’s identity. “So definitely we're going to the Olympics to melt the place!”
Follow the Jamaican bobsleigh team’s progress at Beijing 2022 on the Olympics.com live blog here or you can follow on TV via the Official Olympic Broadcast Partners here.