Jamaican Bobsled Team Seeks Donations to Hire Coach For Next Year’s Winter Olympics
In 1988 Jamaica’s national bobsleigh team captured the attention of the world when they debuted in the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta – Canada.
And unsurprisingly, the Jamaicans were labelled as the underdogs of the tournament, coming from a tropical country.
The team competed in one sport, Bobsledding, in both the two-man and four-man events and finished outside the medal places in both competitions.
Athletes were recruited from the Jamaica Defence Force, which saw Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris and Michael White become the first members of the team.
And in order to make it to Calgary, the team needed to borrow sleds from other countries and barely managed to scrape together the funds necessary to recruit a coach.
The team’s efforts eventually inspired the production of the now iconic 1993 film Cool Runnings.
Now, nearly three decades later, a new generation of Jamaican bobsleighers face similar challenges as they are currently trying to raise the funds needed to hire a coach to guide them to next year’s Winter Olympics in South Korea.
A GoFundme page has now been created as the team seeks assistance to accrue the required $60,000 to hire a coach.
The online fundraising page reads:
“The Winter Olympics are in just over a year, and we are in the midst of our training. With trust in God, and each other, we are working as hard as we can; however, we are missing one thing-a coach. We have the talent, the discipline and the determination, needed to contend in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Please support our efforts to raise enough funds to hire a coach. A coach is there to guide you, challenge you and push you when you think you have nothing more to give. They believe in you, when you don’t believe in yourself.”
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