The Jamaican bobsled team qualified for the 2014 Winter Olymics in Sochi but needed a massive fundraising campaign in order to make it to the games.
Now the teams equipment is missing. Not in Sochi are runners (blades), shoes and other gear.
“We didn’t have nothing — no equipment at all,” Jamaican bobsled pilot Winston Watts said as the team waited to pick up its gear, via USA Today. “There’s nothing I can do right now. I’m just going to leave it to the chef de mission to deal with it. I just want to concentrate on the track.”
The team is hopeful that their equipment will arrive on Wednesday or early Thursday so they can get some practice runs in. If not Watts said that other teams had expressed a willingness to help.
The 1993 movie Cool Runnings was based on the Jamaican bobsled team that appeared in the 1988 Calgary Olympics.
“I still watch that movie as if it’s the first I’m watching it,” Watts said. “It’s very inspiring.”
The Jamaican bobsledders competed in the 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics. Their best finish was 14th in 1994.
