Jamaican bobsleigh team appears at Winter Olympics for first time since 1998

Daniel Brown

The four-man Jamaican bobsleigh team put on a show at the Opening Ceremony

A Jamaican bobsleigh team will compete at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1998 as the 2022 games get underway.

The opening ceremony in Beijing was a true spectacle, and it was made even better with the presence of the Jamaicans. While many athletes simply walked out behind the flag bearers and embraced the crowd, the four-man Jamaican bobsleigh team opted for a different approach.

While the make-up of the four-man team is yet to be confirmed, pilot Shanwayne Stephens and Co were in fine spirits at the opening ceremony.

No Winter Olympics is complete without team Jamaica! 🇯🇲

Watch the #Beijing2022 opening ceremony live on @BBCiPlayer and @BBCOne.#bbcolympics https://t.co/HrSS1IaTXv

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 4, 2022

Stephens has competed with push athletes Matthew Wekpe, Ashley Watson and Rolando Reid in every four-man race he participated in this season, so it is expected that their line-up could include all of the aforementioned athletes.

Jamaica made its debut at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics with an iconic four-man bobsled team, which inspired the classic 1993 Disney film ‘Cool Runnings’. After failing to qualify for the four-man bobsleigh in 2018 by just one place, the country is now back competing for the first time since 1998.

Since the country’s first appearance, at least two representatives from the Caribbean country have competed at the games, and this year marks the first time that Jamaica has qualified in three Olympic bobsled events – including the four-man, two-man and women’s monobob events.

Speaking in January, Stephens told Today: “We’ve put in a lot of hard work the last four years to achieve what we’ve achieved.

“Over the lockdown, we’ve come up with a way to get our own training done, we didn’t want to leave any stone unturned when it came to qualifying for the games, so we can now look back and say, ‘We did everything we could’ve done to achieve our goal.'”

The pilot has also reiterated that the team ‘are more than just a movie’ and that they want to show people how competitive they are.

As per the Olympics’ official website, he added: “We’re more than just a movie. We want to show we’re actually fierce competitors and we’re out there to put on a really good performance at the Games.”

https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver/status/1489619289871196164

Whether Jamaica’s four-man Jamaican bobsleigh team have the capability to cause an upset and take a medal back to the Carribbean remains to be seen. Yet, one thing is for sure; they will have the support of the entire country, and probably the backing of most others, too.

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