Jamaica have for the first time qualified for three Olympic bobsled events, their team said, setting the stage for a Cool Runnings-style underdog drama to unfold at the Beijing Games.
For the first time in 24 years, Team Jamaica plans to send a four-man sled, the event which inspired the popular film about the Caribbean country’s first unlikely foray into the winter sport.
“It will be fire on ice,” Team Jamaica wrote on Twitter on Monday. “This will be the 1st time JAM has qualified in three Olympic bobsled events: four-man, two-man and women’s monobob.”
Yet in a sign of the challenges they face, the team have been trying to crowdfund US$194,000 for new equipment since late November last year, with an appeal called “Cool Sleds for the Hottest Thing On Ice.”
The athletes “are as committed, hardworking, resilient, and talented as any, but without elite sleds they can never reach their potential,” the Web page says. “We don’t want to be drag racing in a Prius.”
So far less than US$4,000 has been raised.
Jamaica also missed a two-woman spot at Beijing on a tiebreaker, but could still make it as first alternate if a qualified nation gives up a spot.
The country’s bobsled team made headlines with their improbable attempt at Olympic glory in Calgary in 1988, and their story as told in the 1993 film captured imaginations around the world.
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