To the wild acclaim of the crowds, two men appeared fully equipped and ready to go. The color of their uniforms and bobsled were unmistakable: Black, green, and yellow. This was Jamaica’s world renowned Bobsled Team, back in the Olympics! Memories of their first appearance ran through everyone’s minds, and all were expecting great things. I myself can remember, some time ago, watching arguably one of the greatest movies of all time: Cool Runnings. That movie was a fictionalized account of their original debut in the 1988 Calgary Games, and was fantastic. Though they didn’t medal, the novelty of a bobsled team from an island that has never seen a snowflake captured everyone’s imagination. They had been in a few Olympics since, but haven’t in one in around eight years. Although seen as a novelty, however, they actually won an international bobsled competition in 2000. This year in Sochi, however, they didn’t bring all four men. Only two men, Winston Watts and Marvin Dixon, took to the track in the two-man bobsled event. Though they came in six and a half seconds behind Russia (The usual differentials are hundredths of seconds), they didn’t disappoint the crowd.  In fact, they even released a new song (their original song is in Cool Runnings) that proved a huge hit with everyone. Their last run ended in an interview with NBC, and the kissing of an egg (A Cool Runnings joke). The Americans actually got Bronze in the two-man, so that’s a good thing. Those runs on those few days left me with a smile on my face. Even now, all I can think about is the motto of the Jamaican National Bobsled Team : “Feel the rhythm,  Feel the rhyme, Get on up, It’s Bobsled Time! COOOOOOOOL RUNNINGS!!!”

Sources used:

Cool Runnings. Dir. John Turteltaub. Perf. Leon, Doug E. Doug, Rawle D. Lewis, Malik Yoba and John Candy. WALT DISNEY PICTURES., 1993.

D’Amato, Gary. “Jamaican Bobsled Team Makes Push for Respect.” Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.