From Jamaica Wiki
The Jamaican Bobsled team was the result of the inspiration that two Americans had. Their names were George B. Fitch and William Maloney, it all started when they assisted to a Pushcart Derby in Jamaica. The pushcarts, sort of homemade carts that can be seen all across Jamaica, and are used for daily shores such as transporting food, reminded these two American men of the bobsleds, and as they saw these contests in which Jamaican’s competed for trophies and money, they decided to make a Jamaican bobsled team.
Since bobsledding requires some good runners also, they decided to look for professional sprinters, which were widely found across Jamaica, though, none of them were eager to be on the team, and so they had to seek for help from the Jamaican government. The first four members where Devon Harris a Lieutenant in the Second Battalion of the Jamaican Army, Dudley Stokes a Captain from the JDF Airwing, Michael White a Private in the National Reserves, and Samuel Clayton a Railway Engineer. The team was fist Coached by Howard Siler which was native from Malone, New York.
The team debuted in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta (Canada), in which they had several crashes and injuries, some of them very remembered like a crash they had on their final run. Even though, any of these difficulties stopped them from gaining a lot of fame in this competition.
They could make it to the 1992 Winter Olympics, which took place in Albertville, France. People was astonished by the achievements and improvements of this team, because even when teams from countries like Canada, Norway, or Sweden have the great advantage of having snow they finished in the 14th place, ahead of the United States, Russia, France and Italy teams. And in the two man event they made it to the 10th place, in which they beat the Swedish team.
They also won a gold medal at the World Push Bobsled Championships in the year 2000, but failed to qualify in the Torino, Italy Winter Olympics. Though, their mood didn’t go down for this, and are looking forward to make it for the future 2010 Winter Olympics in Torino, Vancouver (British Columbia).
They were also an inspiration for a Disney motion picture titled “Cool Runnings”, featuring John Candy as the team’s coach. Though, the characters in this movie were totally made up, and weren’t really based on the Jamaican team.
The actual members of the team are Winston Watt, the Captain; Wayne Thomas, the Brake Man; Ricky McIntosh, the Skeleton.
