Cool Runnings 2.0 Jamaica aiming for Hollywood ending

Chris Stokes, part of the 1988 team that inspired the film, eyes glory as head of the national bobsleigh federation

- Ben Bloom

Shane Pitter (left) led Jamaica to a first ever North American Cup gold

(JUNIOR HARRIS)

It did not make so much as a ripple outside its minor sporting niche, but something particularly unusual occurred in the bobsleigh world earlier this year.

Upon turning up in the New York outpost of Lake Placid for their final Winter Olympics warm-up competition, Jamaica’s four-man bobsleigh team were informed they were not allowed to take part. A hat-trick of gold medals over the preceding few weeks had seen them rise too high in the world rankings to take their customary place on the second-tier North American Cup circuit. They had simply become too good.

In the overwhelming majority of countries, the Winter Olympics is an assortment of sporting oddities held in an alternative climate that might pique attention every four years. Rarely does it break through to the mainstream, which is what makes Jamaican bobsleigh such a curious exception.

“There is no meeting that I cannot get, and no conversation that somebody is [not] at least willing to have with me,” says Jamaica Bobsleigh Federation president Chris Stokes. “Not because they know me, and not because they know bobsleigh. But because they know Cool Runnings.”