The Jamaican two-man bobsled team qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi this weekend, ending a 12-year absence from the Winter. The team will be the first since the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City to represent Jamaica in the field of 30 different teams. Bobsled driver Winston Watts and brakeman Marvin Dixon are thrilled to get the chance to perform on the biggest stage for athletics in the world. “It means the world to me,” Watts said.
Jamaica doesn’t get a lot of chances to compete in the Winter Olympics, but when it gets its chance, it makes it memorable. The 1988 four-man bobsled team was Jamaica’s bobsledding debut and inspired the 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings.” Since the debut, the team has made trips to the next four Winter Olympics, but since that stretch, they’ve been absent from the field until this year.
Unfortunately, qualification wasn’t the last hurdle the team needed to jump. To take the Sochi trip the team needed as much as $80,000, and after Watts spent more than $90,000 of his own money during qualification trips, funding for Sochi was at zero.
The 46-year-old Watts came out of quasi-retirement to try and compete in Sochi after his 10-year absence, but a lack of funding could have stifled his last chance.
“In truth, we still don’t really know at the moment if we’d even have enough funds or sponsorship to fly to Sochi itself for the Games,” Watts said. And it’s not only the two-man team, but their families also. “Our families need to be taken care of first. If there’s no funding, who knows?”
After its initial funding resources dried up, the team began a crowd-sourced campaign asking for donations of any size. As one might assume, it wasn’t long before funds started pouring in.
It comes as no surprise that people wanted to see the Jamaican team in Sochi, remembering back to the 1993 Disney movie and hoping for another underdog story. And it has started just as inspirationally as the crowd-funding website Indiegogo had raised more than $15,000 by 3 p.m. and a British company called ZX Recruitment tweeted to the Jamaican Olympics team saying it was willing to sponsor the team by donating $40,000.
“I would love to make the difference,” said ZX Recruitment’s general manager, George Meireles, after confirming the offer. Meanwhile, Dogecoin and Crowdtilt, two more crowd-funding websites, raised more than $50,000 and provided enough to send the team to Russia.
“This means so much,” Watt said. “I didn’t want to see Jamaican bobsled just die like that after all the sacrifices.”
Sports have a way of bringing people together. To see how fast the bobsledding team can go from having no funding to being overly funded through the generosity of the international community is incredible. I’ve always had an obsession with sports, and every once in a while I find a really good reason for it. The Olympics are the biggest stage for athletics where the world comes together and collectively celebrates the festivities and temporary forgets about political unrest.
If the Olympics took place every year, it wouldn’t be as special. It’s just like why In-N-Out burger remains on the West Coast and Wegman’s only comes as far south as Virginia. Quality is better than quantity.
As February rolls around and you’re searching for study breaks, look no further than a quick Olympic break.
