Cool Runnings slider Chris Stokes: Pushcart championships the key to unlocking Jamaica bobsleigh talent

When the Jamaican bobsleigh team took to the track at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, comparisons with the Cool Runnings team of Calgary 1988 were difficult to avoid.

After all, the 1993 Hollywood film titled after the nickname given to their famous sled was a box office hit and remains immensely popular today.

But the reality is that the Caribbean nation’s athletes who competed in the Yanqing National Sliding Centre over the past few weeks are an entirely different proposition to the team of 34 years ago.

“We’re more than a movie, and we’re more than just participants,” Chris Stokes told Olympics.com in China.

He was part of that 1988 team and is now the CEO and Chairman of the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.

“Our aim is to be very good at this sport," Stokes shared.

“We have a programme now that recruits and develops bobsleigh athletes. We are trying to get to an inflection point. We're trying to become a top-10 nation in the World Cup all the time. And yes, it's not beyond us because we think we have the talent to get on the podium.”

Stokes’ point about the evolution and improvement of the programme is accurate.

At Beijing 2022, for the first time in Olympic history, Jamaica fielded entries in three bobsleigh events - the two-man and four-man sleds, and the women’s monobob.

But one theme that remains as true today as it did 24 years ago in Calgary is the uphill battle to compete with richer nations in what is a very expensive sport.

“You just have to look back at how many countries have won Olympic medals in bobsleigh to understand the immensity of the challenge of succeeding in the sport, and even just to participate in the sport.” - Chris Stokes to Olympics.com

While Germany and the United States - two