Cool Runnings still has staying power
Published:Friday | February 18, 2022 | 12:13 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
As Jamaica prepares to compete in the four-man bobsleigh event for the first time in more than two decades, Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation president Nelson ‘Chris’ Stokes says that the portrayal of their 1988 debut in the movi e Cool Runnings still has staying power.
The team of pilot Shanwayne Stephens, Nimroy Turgott, Ashley Watson and Rolando Reid will mark Jamaica’s return to the event today starting at 8:30 p.m Jamaica time. It will be the first time that Jamaica will compete in the event since 1998 when the team of Stokes, his brother Dudley, Winston Watts and Wayne Thomas finished 21st at the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan.
Stokes, who was a member of the original four that made the country’s Olympic debut at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Canada, on which the movie Cool Runnings is based, said that it did not give a disrespectful portrayal of Jamaica and would have painted the picture of the struggles they had to overcome.
“It was a positive movie, the right mix of humour and getting the message across. If you watched it you would have had a very clear idea of the challenges that we faced, how we confronted it and how we came out of it,” Stokes told The Gleaner. That team crashed in their final heat but would return to compete in three more Games (1992, 1994 and 1998) before enduring a two-decade wait to return. While a documentary of their current season is being filmed, even many years later Stokes says that he is still touched by how many persons are inspired by the film and the impact that it has made.
“I’m proud to be associated with it. I don’t think there was anything demeaning or whatever. Or making fun of us from time to time. That movie has inspired so many people from so many corners of the world. You would not believe it,” Stokes said.
However, it’s the new generation that he is focused on as he could not hide his excitement upon their qualification.
“To stand there and see the guys on the starting line doing so well and so versed in the sport, it is satisfying from the point of view of why I’m in sports administration. To provide opportunities for young men and women to improve their lives through sport. I have to admit that I’m sure I will have flashbacks of standing at the starting line in 1988 terrified. I will experience that as it comes but it is now about these set of guys that are just impressive young men,” Stokes said.