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Photo By EPA: Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and Audra Segree both come from an athletic background
Just like the men’s 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics team, the Jamaican women’s bobsleigh team will be taking part in their first ever Winter Games
We all remember the heart-warming tale of the male Jamaican bobsleigh team qualifying for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
Disney turned their epic story into a cult film, and now it seems that history is repeating itself.
Thirty years after that incredible achievement, Jamaica’s women’s bobsled team have emulated the men’s in qualifying for the Pyeongchang Winter games this year.
The girls sealed their qualification over the weekend, according to the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.
Now, pilot Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian, brakewoman Carrie Russell and Audra Segree are headed to South Korea.
Back in December, they showed their pedigree at the Winterberg World Cup where they finished seventh.
So, they’ll be targeting a top 10 finish at the Winter Olympics with their German coach Sandra Kiriasis, which gets underway on February 9.
Fenlator-Victorian, 32, who represented the United States at Sochi 2014 as a push-athlete, switched to her father’s native Jamaica in 2015.
“Pyeongchang will be my second appearance at the Winter Games, but it is just as special as my first,” she said.
“This time I have the opportunity to represent my other home – Jamaica – and make history as the first female team representing the country in the Winter Olympic Games.”
Russell, 27, won a gold medal in the 4x100m relay at the World Athletics Championship in 2013. This is her first Winter Olympics.
“This is one of the happiest moments of my life,” she revealed after qualifying.
“I never dreamed that I would become a bobsled athlete.”
Segree, the second brakewoman of the team, was also a former sprinter.
“A leap of faith and a dream come true later I will be representing my country as one of the first women bobsled athletes in the Olympics,” she added.
“I am overwhelmed with joy knowing that I have helped make history for my country. I am really grateful for this experience.”
Their success echoes that of Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, Freddy Powell and Chris Stokes, who won everyone’s hearts at the 1988 Winter Olympics.
They were the first Jamaican bobsledders to earn notoriety and their exploits became a 1993 movie starring the late John Candy.
And just like that team, these group of girls come from an athletic background.
Back in November, Fenlator-Victorian insisted the group were made up of “experienced, world-class, elite athletes.”
She added: “Although my brakewomen may have limited experience in bobsleigh, (they) are some of the most elite with training, physical ability and mental toughness.”
Photo By Walt Disney: The Jamaican men’s bobsleigh team’s success became a cult movie
Coupled with Nigerian’s bobsleigh women’s team becoming the first African sled to compete at the Winter Olympics, it promises to be an intriguing year.
So, as the boys once said: ‘Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme… get on up, it’s bobsled time.’
Courtesy of thesun.co.uk
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