It has been 34 years since Jamaica competed in bobsled at the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988. This unlikely performance was later made famous by the Disney feature film “Cool Runnings.”
Even though the four-man team lost and got a “Did Not Finish” score, Dudley “Tal” Stokes, Michael White, Devon Harris, and Chris Stokes’ actions were immortalized in the 1993 hit, which is still one of the sports comedies with the highest grossing tickets.
Now, perhaps more importantly, the team has unintentionally inspired generations of Jamaican athletes who compete in winter sports.
Tal Stokes stated to CNN Sport, “People watch Cool Runnings and they are very influenced in a lot of ways.”
A decade later, for the first time in Olympic history, the island nation entered its first ever alpine skier and qualified in three bobsled events: the two-man bobsled, the women’s monobob, and the four-man bobsled.
Shanwayne Stephens and Nimroy Turgott of Jamaica’s two-man bobsled team finished last in the competition; however, this week, the nation will compete in the four-man event.
Improbable Beginnings
The 1988 team “started from zero,” Stokes told CNN.
The film “Cool Runnings” came five years after Jamaica contended in the Calgary Games – however as per Stirs up, the film was conceptualized by Americans William Maloney and George Fitch before he and his colleagues even began contending together.
The two gentlemen were said to have the idea. William Maloney wanted to march in an Olympic Games’ opening ceremony. He has a wish list and has completed it throughout his life. Additionally, George Fitch had always intended to make a movie, he stated.
At the time, the men were both living in Jamaica: Businessman Maloney was married to a Jamaican, and Fitch was employed by the government of the United States.
“Both of them were savoring a bar in Kingston and saw the handcart derby on TV and struck up on sled.”
According to Stokes, the pair went to the army to find potential candidates because they couldn’t get any athletes to take up bobsledding for their project.
He stated, “At the time, I was a sports fan, and I was an officer and played football in the army.”
Stokes said that while he was on vacation at the time, his unit called him and told him to try out for box cart trials to see how well he could play the sport.
I really didn’t have a choice when the orders “came down the chain of command to me as an order.” So I set out, he said.
“A brutal way of life”
It wasn’t easy to get used to the bobsled: Stokes stated, “I had no idea what sport I was getting into at all.”
According to Stokes, training for bobsled was a “brutal existence, from your eyes open to your eyes closed.” The team had no prior experience in the sport, so it had to work hard to compete.
The team was about to enter the cold weather. According to Stokes, “strict, strict timing regimes in days that were structured from beginning to end on time, and just hammering away.”
According to Stokes, “We had to change the culture,” or rather, “look at the culture that was successful in the sport, which is typically a German culture.” In order to complete our tasks, we had to switch to German.
A convoluted inheritance
The movie “Cool Runnings” became a huge hit and made over $154 million at the box office. However, the film’s commercial success had a significant impact on Stokes’ life, and the happy-go-lucky plot featuring hapless athletes did not accurately reflect the accomplishments of the actual team.
“‘Cool Runnings’ has created a huge shaded area over my life,” Stirs up told CNN.
He stated, “There is a very unsettling position of actually being alive to watch your legacy unfold.” The majority of people pass away before their legacy is known, but I had to live it.
He explained, “It started with what, you know, was really a comedy.” A great deal of what we did at first was comedic. However, as time went on, we actually became rivals and operated at the highest level. In and of itself, that was a journey.”
He competed in four Olympic Games during his sporting career, during which time he significantly improved his running speed.
“I had a 10-year Olympic career, participating in four Games from 1988 to 1998: In Japan, Lillehammer, Calgary, Albertville, and Nagano Therefore, it is extremely uncommon to not occur.
Motivating future Generations
Despite the fact that it has been 24 years since Jamaica’s four-man bobsled team qualified for the Winter Olympics, this year’s four-man team, known as “Fire on Ice,” hopes to change that.
Benjamin Alexander’s Cool Runnings jibes on the ski slopes inspired him to seriously consider pursuing the sport, and this year, he became Jamaica’s first alpine skier.
According to Alexander, who shared this information with CNN Sport, “as I got good enough to kind of ski with them socially, being the only Black representative in the group, even though I am only half Black, and being of Jamaican heritage, people kept throwing jokes, sideways jokes at me about “Cool Runnings,” the Jamaican bobsled team, and, “you should go to the Olympics.”
Alexander began to wonder if he could compete at that level after attending the 2018 PyeongChang Games as a spectator.
Apart from thoroughly enjoying the Olympic spirit, one of the things I noticed was that only three Jamaican athletes were present.
“Knowing how popular the movie “Cool Runnings” is and how strong Jamaica is in the Summer Games surprised me.
“I kind of had this thought in my head: Let’s see if this can be done. I assumed that death or at least serious injury would be the most likely outcomes.
In the years since his Olympic presentation, Stirs up has become more OK with his situation in donning and mainstream society history.
I now consider Olympic participation to be a worthy objective. Interest that is pointed not at getting a gold decoration has its place,” he said.
One: “Most people, most athletes at an Olympic Games… one: two things: no medal You won’t make it to the finals. That is a fact.
Anything worthwhile in life is a struggle, and life is a struggle. Additionally, you will suffer whenever you engage in conflict. Furthermore, the one thing I might want to convey to individuals that individuals feel that enduring is something to be stayed away from: no. That is the situation.
“What we want to create is: How are we going to endure hardship and struggle and ultimately triumph?
