This article first featured of LADbible
The Jamaican women's bobsleigh team have made history at this year's Winter Games, 30 years after the men's team competed for the first-time and inspired the film Cool Runnings.
Female teammates pilot Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and brake-woman Carrie Russell, made their Olympic debut yesterday at the PyeongChang winter games after going through a bit of a rough time.
Just days before they were due to take to the track, their coach Sandra Kiriasis, a two-time Olympic medalist, left the team and took the sled with her - saying that it was she who had secured the funding for it and unless they paid her, they couldn't use it.
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All looked a bit desperate for the team, with the Jamaican Bobsleigh Federation refusing to pay Kiriasis and Kiriasis refusing to hand over the sled, until Jamaican brewery Red Stripe stepped in and offered to fund a new sled - telling the team to 'put it on our tab'.
The sled arrived just in time and was given the name 'Mr Cool Bolt' in homage to both Jamaican Usain Bolt and, of course, the movie Cool Runnings.
Fenlator-Victorian told Reuters: "A lot of people know of bobsleigh because of the movie Cool Runnings and Jamaica making that launch in 1988 and really pushing bobsleigh with their popularity.
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"But we're also humbled and honored to be compared to those men that started and fought so hard to represent Jamaica,"
The women went on to complete their first run in 51.29 seconds, earning 17th place. After their final two runs yesterday, they ended up in 19th place overall.
But it didn't matter what the women placed, because fans were still over-the-moon to see them compete:
So, while the women may not have bagged themselves a gold (this time) they've still managed to overcome a few hurdles and take part. I reckon there's definitely a Cool Runnings sequel to be made out of this.
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Source: Reuters; olympic.org
Featured Image Credit: PA
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Jamaica,
