Now he's excited to have a chance to represent his country, as well as Morgan State and all historically Black colleges and universities.īorn and raised in England, Watson was a talented sprinter and soccer player growing up and initially got involved with bobsled through Great Britain's program. He quit his teaching job and the rest, as they say, is history. "On the day of the tryouts, they said 'Hey, look, take part, and see what happens.' So, I took part, and fortunately, I was the No. "I said, 'Alright, I'll coach you for the tryouts, get you ready, get you prepared,'" Reid told WUSA9. Reid offered to help him prepare but hadn't considered doing it himself. He moved back to the island after graduating from college and started working as a high school economics teacher. According to WUSA9, about three years after returning home, Reid's brother called him saying he was interested in attending an open tryout for the Jamaican bobsled team.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/XMHAWU4HLJJFDP5CZTGIGP6HU4.jpg "jamaica lockdown 2022")
Reid was a track star and eventually competed for Morgan State University, even winning a MEAC championship in 2015 as part of a relay team.īut he just wasn't quite at the level needed to make the uber-competitive Jamaican track team. But bobsled wasn't exactly what he had in mind. Stephens also has the cutest fan rooting him on from afar - his toddler daughter Maia, who was fully decked out for his two-man runs.Īs a child, Reid, now 29, always dreamed of competing in the Olympics. "Well, I suppose that's one way to train," she said laughing. He even had the chance to tell Queen Elizabeth - yes, Her Royal Majesty herself - about it on a video call (which also found its way around the internet). However, his creativity during the lockdown went viral as he and Turgott pushed around his fiancee's Mini Cooper to stay competition ready. He began as a brakeman before transitioning to the pilot position.Īs it did for many athletes around the world, the pandemic made training a challenge for Stephens. Today, he's a member of the United Kingdom Royal Air Force and got involved in the sport through the military. Stephens was born in Jamaica but moved to England as a child. They finished in 30th place out of 30, but he still called his Olympic debut "a moment to remember." Stephens, 31, already competed this week in the two-man event with Nimroy Turgott. So who are the four men on the squad? Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, it's meet the members of the Jamaican bobsled team time. The better the result the team earns this weekend, the closer the country gets to the ultimate goal. "Our big plan for 2026 is to qualify for four events, two teams per event, and to have someone on the podium in 2030," Chris Stokes, who was a member of the 1988 team and is now the president of the Jamaican bobsled federation, said in an interview with The Daily Mirror. Jamaica also qualified in the two-man event, as well as a sled in the women's monobob, and the country believes the best is yet to come.
#JAMAICA LOCKDOWN 2022 MOVIE#
Or, you know, the "best pushcart driver in all of Jamaica."īut, of course, it's not just fun and movie references for the team. Wekpe even carries a plastic egg with him, and features it prominently in his Instagram profile picture, in an ode to the movie's fictional brakeman Sanka Coffie. Not everybody gets this opportunity, so we just want to enjoy it."Īnd while the movie took a number of creative liberties, the team still seems to love it as much as millennials do. Just represent Jamaica and enjoy it while we're here. There's Jamaican, non-Jamaican, everybody that loves 'Cool Runnings' is supporting us. I mean, there's a lot of people supporting us. "We just hope that we've done everybody proud.
"I think it's everybody's dream to represent their country and we're here doing it, living it and breathing it," Stephens said earlier this week after competing in the two-man event.
Piloted by Shanwayne Stephens, with Rolando Reid, Ashley Watson and Matthew Wekpe as the push athletes, the team has embraced the attention it has already received and is grateful for the worldwide support. That is, until this year, and on Saturday in Beijing, a new foursome from Jamaica will compete and potentially win over a whole new generation of fans. The team achieved some success in the years that followed - including a surprise 14th-place finish during the 1994 Games - but has been unable to qualify a four-man team since 1998. It's been 34 years since the four-man Jamaican bobsled team made its Olympic debut, enamoring the world with its underdog story and inspiring the beloved childhood staple "Cool Runnings." Winter Olympics 2022: Jamaican bobsled team embraces 'Cool Runnings,' but has sights set on more than movie references
#JAMAICA LOCKDOWN 2022 UPGRADE#
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