Jamaica's Olympic Committee announced on their twitter on Saturday that they have qualified for the two-man bobsled team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. And I know what your thinking, "Jamaica has a bobsledding team?" and the answer is yes. The team is coming back after not qualifying for the 2006 and the 2010 Winter Olympics and the team consist of Winston Watts and Marvin Dixon.
Even though the team has qualified for the games, it doesn't mean they can get their. The team is currently having funding problems. They were originally planing on having a four man team, but because of funding problems they had to cut back to two. Watts told the BBC that they need to raise $80,000 in order to play for the trip and to get new equipment. Now since the team has qualified they can use this to kick start funding for their team, so that they can get to Sochi.
If this bobsled team sounds familiar, it may because of the 1993 film Cool Runnings that is loosely based on the Jamaican bobsled team's first debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I have not seen Cool Runnings, but I do plan on watching it before the Winter Olympics in February.
The bobsled team first appeared in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the members at the time were Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, and Nelson Stokes. They had many fans during the games, because of their underdog background.
Jamaica will not be the only tropical country that is getting a shot to compete in the upcoming winter games in Sochi. Other tropical nations that will have a presence in the 2014 games are Togo, Zimbabwe, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Virgin Islands, Brazil, Peru, Tonga, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Timor-Laeste. So lets hope these guys are prepared for the cold.
Hopefully the Jamaican bobsled team can raise enough funds, so they can compete in Sochi. If you are feeling generous and want to help them out visit this page. Lets see if we can get a Cool Runnings 2 after this. Now excuse me while I go watch the first one.
Sources
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1927933-jamaican-bobsled-team-qualifies-for-2014-sochi-winter-olympics?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/19/5324410/jamaican-bobsled-team-2014-winter-olympics-fundraising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_national_bobsleigh_team
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_nations_at_the_Winter_Olympics
Picture
http://msn.foxsports.com/content/dam/fsdigital/fscom/Olympics/images/2014/01/18/011814-OLYMPICS-JAMAICA-BOBSLED-TEAM-QUALIFIES-DC-PI-CQ.jpg
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