Twenty-four years after the Jamaican bobsleigh team last qualified for the Olympics at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games, the team made their triumphant and hard-earned return to action.
The Jamaican bobsleigh team captured the world’s imagination in 1988, making their debut in Calgary before inspiring fans around the world thanks to Cool Runnings , the Disney film depicting their epic story.
The team achieved some success in the years that followed - including a surprise 14th-place finish during the 1994 Games - but had been unable to qualify a four-man team since 1998 until driver Shanwayne Stephens and brakemen Matthew Wekpe, Ashley Watson, Nimory Turgott and Rolando Reid achieved Olympic qualification for the 2022 Beijing Games.
Each of the men have their own inspiring stories, with Stephens working in the RAF as Regiment Gunner of The Queen’s Colour Squadron. Stephens only got into bobsleigh when he saw a poster on the notice board in 2015 and attended trials for the RAF team.
“Literally two weeks later, I was on ice and seeing a bobsleigh for the first time without knowing anything about,” he exclusively told The Mirror. “I’m as surprised as you about my whole journey!”
It was a journey that required some luck. The manager of the RAF team happened to know the manager of the Jamaican bobsleigh team, so Stephens flew out to Calgary for trials in 2017.
While he was only supposed to go for two weeks, Stephens ended up spending nearly three months with the team competing all over America - but he didn’t realise they were actually trying to qualify for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games.
“We were going home for Christmas and someone said we were close to qualifying, and I was like, ‘what?!’” Stephens recalled. “Unfortunately, we missed out but we used it as fuel to qualify for these Games. Missing out by such a small margin just gave us that little bit of fire and drive to work harder.”
Stephens believes the team managed to achieve qualification for Beijing thanks to their greater experience and support staff brought on board. While former Rugby Sevens star Wepke may not have provided the experience Stephens suggested, he proved to be the missing piece of Jamaica’s puzzle.
Stephens messaged Wepke to ask if he would be interested in trying out for the team. After contemplating the opportunity, he decided to go for it - and five weeks later, Wepke laid eyes on a bobsleigh for the first time, just six days before he was due to compete in a World Cup race.
“It’s probably one of the quickest turnarounds; in my first week of bobsleigh, I was competing at the highest level outside of the Games,” Wepke admitted, almost in total disbelief at his own path to the Olympics. “I had to learn quick and it was a steep learning curve - but I’m happy that I was thrown in the deep end because it made everything else much easier.
“It sounds crazy but it’s been fun, and I’m glad Shan reached out because I wouldn’t be sitting here saying I’m an Olympian.”
Wepke - who laughed when suggesting rugby handoffs helped prepare him for the bobsleigh - may not have been the experienced member of the team Stephens alluded to, but Watson certainly is.
Armed with experience at the highest level outside of the Olympics - including the North America Cup, the Europa Cup and the World Cup - his insight proved vital as the team set their sights on Beijing.
“My experience in the format helped when the team first came together, because Rolando [Reid] had never even run on ice before, Matthew [Wepke] hadn’t ever pushed off properly, and Shan [Stephens] hadn’t had much experience as well,” Watson said. “We didn’t have a coach when we were first put in America, and I think my input helped get everyone to understand what goes on and what’s required.
“It’s surreal given all the hard work. Bobsleigh is not a glorious sport; it’s about pure graft, and all the work paid off in the end. It felt great to be at the OIympics, especially when it finished and we could reflect on the experience.”
Fellow brakeman Tugott - who claims to make ‘the best banana bread in the world’ - was part of the team that narrowly missed out on qualification to the 2018 Games after he quickly transitioned from track and field. Before bobsleigh, he was a sprinter who clocked 10.13seconds in the 100m, and he was recruited prior to the PyeongChang Olympics.
“I wasn’t interested at first because I was doing pretty well in track and field, but then I thought to myself, ‘this is an opportunity to represent Jamaica’ - and I couldn’t turn it down,” Turgott declared. “I flew to Whistler, and the next day I was in a bobsleigh.
“The experience was scary at first and I didn’t know what I was getting myself into - but I enjoyed my first run and never looked back.”
The motley crew of brakemen is completed with Reid, who left his job as a teacher to pursue his dreams of qualifying for the Olympics. Like Turgott, he envisioned himself as a sprinter - but a simple phone call from his friend changed everything.
“He was preparing for Jamaican bobsleigh tryouts in 2019, and he wanted me to help him get up to speed but I guess I prepared myself!” Reid said, laughing at the irony. “I never dreamed of competing in winter sports, by any means.
“I dreamed of competing at the Summer Olympics in 2008, but it’s pretty similar because it is in the same country at the same city. I think it’s a double win for me - I’m happy I was able to do it with these guys.”
The pandemic threatened to derail their hard work, but the motivated team never let go of their dream. Stephens revealed they pushed his fiancees car up and down the street and built a home gym in the garden out of timber, cement and buckets in a bid to remain at the top of their game.
All the hard and creative work paid off for Stephens, though: “We can look back at our whole journey and say we did everything we could to prepare and qualify for the Games. We did, we went there and put in a fantastic performance - and now we can call ourselves Olympians.”
Of course, Cool Runnings has become an inescapable part of Jamaican sporting culture. The team all grew up watching the movie, with Reid developing a love for the film and what it represents.
“As a country boy growing up, I used to build carts and just have fun, so Cool Runnings was something that we saw as a funny movie because it was similar to what we were doing as kids,” Reid said. “As we grew older, we began to recognise what the movie was actually about - the struggles and what you can achieve with little resources.”
At their training camp in Lake Placid, fans and media members would approach the team and ask about Cool Runnings - and it made the five-man team unite together to follow in their footsteps.
Wepke added: “We came to a common goal where, with little resources, we had to get to the Games despite everything that was against us. I think that was what ignited our fire to believe in ourselves and achieve it.
“We all talk about Cool Runnings and it’s a part of our culture, but we didn’t let that be the main motivation. It was the hard work and determination that got us to the Games.”
Ultimately, the media attention generated from a Disney movie and the remarkable concept of Jamaica competing in the bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics has benefited the team through sponsorship. Sandals Resorts helped fund the team to physically ensure they got to Beijing, covering their travel costs.
Moving forwards, the Sandals Foundation are committed to inspiring the next generation of bobsleigh talent in Jamaica.
“We would like to have better equipment so not only do we compete in the games, but start competing for medals and having more teams qualify. This year was a historic year for us having qualified three sleds, so hopefully we can start qualifying in all the big events,” Reid said when discussing the aspirations of the team moving forwards.
“With Sandals Foundation on board, I think it will help us get over the line. We'll be going into schools to recruit, working with nutrition programmes, and just trying to prepare the next generation of athletes.”
“Oh, and aim for medals in Milan.”
Perhaps Disney will write up a script for a sequel. I know just the five men who would be perfect to cast for the role.
