Jamaican bobsleigh team’s incredible response after Winter Olympics return doesn’t go to plan

The latest chapter in Jamaica’s ‘Cool Runnings’ legacy hasn’t quite gone to plan at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, with the four-man team sitting last halfway through the medal heats.

But Ashley Watson says results aren’t entirely the point: “It’s been such a long time since Jamaica had a four-man bobsleigh at the Olympics.”

“Now we’re here continuing that story, that movement,” he told Channel 7 on Saturday - as you can watch in the video above.

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Jamaica has had other bobsleigh teams but this four-man group is the first of its kind since the 1998 Winter Olympics, five years after Cool Runnings was in cinemas.

“It’s phenomenal, it’s great,” Watson said.

Jamaica finished their first heat in a time of 1:00.80 and recorded a 1:01.39 in the second, while the final two heats will take place on Sunday from 12.30pm AEDT.

“Our journey is trying to inspire everybody in the world to just go out there, try something new,” pilot Shanwayne Stephens said.

“If you want to do something, just go out there and try it, you can achieve it. Just have a go, you never know if you’re going to be good at something if you don’t have a go at it.

“I can literally speak for all of us when I say we never thought we’d be bobsledders ever.

“It was literally by chance that we all got into the sport of bobsleigh. If we didn’t get that chance then we wouldn’t be here today.

“Go out there, try something new, have some fun with it.”

Stephens said the team has had a real struggle over the last four years, before and after COVID affected their ability to qualify and add to the ‘Cool Runnings’ story.

Matthew Wekpe, who came to the sport in 2020, carries around a lucky egg