With a four-man Jamaican bobsled team qualifying for the Winter Olympics for the first time in 24 years, many who grew up watching Cool Runnings may have one phrase in mind: "Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, it's bobsled time!"
The Jamaica National Bobsleigh Team represents Jamaica in international bobsledding competitions. The men’s team debuted in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games four-man bobsled in Calgary, Alberta. Their “underdog” status as an unlikely competitor in a cold-weather sport, represented by a nation with a tropical environment, quickly gained them popularity at the Games.
Let's delve into the story of the first Jamaican bobsled team, their journey to the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the man who coached them.
What's the real story behind... Cool Runnings (1993)
The Genesis of a Dream
The idea for a Jamaican bobsleigh team began in the summer of 1987, when George Fitch, a former Commercial Attache for the American embassy in Kingston, returned to Jamaica for a wedding. He mentioned to Jamaican military officer and former soccer player Ken Barnes that the athletes in Jamaica should be talented enough to compete in any Olympic sport.
After watching the country’s annual push cart derby in the Blue Mountains, Fitch figured that the nation’s depth of sprinting talent would translate well to bobsleigh. However, not many Jamaican sprinters were willing to participate since many were training for the Summer Games in Seoul.
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Fitch managed to recruit Mike White and Devon Harris, two of the military's top runners. The driver was a helicopter pilot, Dudley Stokes, who would be in charge of steering the sled. Fitch used his own money to train the team, which would eventually add two more members.
The debut team consisted of Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, Freddy Powell, and last-minute replacement Chris Stokes, qualified at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta.
They had little experience in the sport, having to appeal to other teams for basic equipment in order to compete; sporting camaraderie across national boundaries followed.
Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary
Howard Siler: The Coach
The coach of the Jamaican bobsleigh team that participated at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary was Howard Siler, an Olympic bobsledder for the United States in 1972 and 1980.
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Howard Banford Siler Jr. won a bronze medal in the four-man bobsledding event at the 1969 FIBT World Championships in Lake Placid, New York. In 1985 Siler served as the United States team coach and also as chairman of the US Bobsled Federation Competition Committee.
Unlike the fictional Blitzer, Siler was employed outside his sporting activities, as an insurance executive.
He died July 8, 2014, at his home in Clermont, Florida at the age of 69.
Howard Siler's Achievements
- Bronze medal in the four-man bobsledding event at the 1969 FIBT World Championships
- United States team coach in 1985
- Chairman of the US Bobsled Federation Competition Committee
- Coach of the Jamaican bobsleigh team at the 1988 Winter Olympics
The 1988 Winter Olympics Experience
They went to Austria to take part in a World Cup race in order to qualify for Calgary and while the IOC still tried to disqualify the team shortly before the Olympics, various luminaries, including Prince Albert of Monaco, stepped in to champion their participation.
After that, the stage was set for the Jamaican bobsled team. They originally planned to compete in the two-man competition, but Stokes and White beat 10 other teams, placing 30th. So, they decided to try the four-man discipline, which would take place a few days later.
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The problem was they didn't have a four-man sled. The team ended up selling T-shirts and raised money to purchase one from the Canadian team.
Team Jamaica Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, and Nelson Stokes in action at start of Four Man competition at Canada Olympic Park
The Crash and the Hollywood Call
They went for it, but struck the wall at the ninth corner of the course and flipped the sled. In the final run, they lost control of the sled, crashed, and never officially finished.
After pushing their sled to the finish line, the disappointed team members waved to the crowd and shook hands with a number of fans before leaving the track, assuming the story was over.
Then Hollywood called. The film was a box office success, grossing nearly $70 million when it was released, according to Inside Edition.
Years after Cool Runnings debuted, Fitch said about 1% of the movie is true in an ESPN interview. "What is fact is the crash, everything else is fiction," he explained. "This ‘feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, it’s Jamaica bobsled time’, that was strictly Hollywood."
Legacy
Dudley Stokes and Michael White entered the two-man bobsled event, finishing 30th out of 41 teams. Jamaica returned to the Winter Olympics in the two-man bobsled in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2014.
The last time Jamaica had a four-man sled team was at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan. They've competed in the two-man bobsled team in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2014. Harris captained the 1992 and 1998 teams.
Inspired by the famous Jamaican bobsled Olympic team, there is now a bobsled ride at Mystic Mountain Jamaica near Dunn’s River Falls.