A 17-year-old who only took up the sport 11 months ago is set to continue Jamaica’s rich tradition in bobsleigh at the Winter Youth Olympic Games.The bobsleigh competition will be held at the Lillehammer Olympic Sliding Centre, the same track on which the Caribbean country finished in 14th place in the four-man event at the 1994 Winter Olympic Games. Daniel Mayhew, who comes from the same Orange Field community as former 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell, is the first Jamaican to be selected for a Winter Youth Olympics after none appeared at the inaugural event in Innsbruck in 2012.
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Jamaican Daniel Mayhew will be the first bobsledder to represent Jamaica next week at the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer. It is remarkable that for the first time sitting in a sleigh, the 17-year-old Mayhew less than a year ago. Daniel joins the monobobs that was specially designed for Lillehammer in 2016. Since his first run Mayhew has trained in Switzerland, Austria and Norway, where he also participated in the qualifiers. At the moment he is 22nd in the rankings and that was enough to be allowed to compete in Lillehammer. “I can go to the Youth Olympic Games is unbelievable,” he told the Jamaica Gleaner. “It was such an overwhelming feeling when I knew I was posted after my last run in qualifying.” Bobsleigh and Jamaica is of course synonymous with “Sanka, ya dead? Ya mon”, but Mayhew is not going to join for fun only on the Norwegian ice. “I hope for a medal, maybe even gold,” said the ambitious bobsledder, from the same village as the former world record holder in the 100 meter sprint Asafa Powell. “I have the potential to do it, I just have to listen to […]
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Jamaican Alpine Skier Michael Williams Michael Williams only discovered skiing by accident. As an 18-year-old of Caribbean descent living in Canada, he had turned on his TV to watch the celebrated Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, but got hooked on skiing as well. He loved the way Alberto Tomba of Italy and Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland glided down the slopes. “I wanted it too,” Williams, now aged 45, says of the revelation on his blog page, called ‘Jamaican Dream Chaser’. “I wanted to be called ‘Blackman Zurbriggen.’ I wanted to be a beast on the slopes like he was.” Over time the dream faded; Williams excelled instead at American football and even played professionally for a while in Europe as a quarterback and receiver. [column2] [/column2][column2_last] [instagram-feed] [/column2_last] Late starter on the slopes Only at the age of 43 and when settled into a family life in Germany, did Williams finally decide he wanted to take up skiing competitively. “The first reaction I get when I tell people I’m a skier from Jamaica is always about Cool Runnings,” Williams said to reporters at the alpine skiing world championships in Colorado this week, referring […]
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Just when you thought you have seen the last of Jamaica, Jamaica has made headlines once again. This time in the form of a bobsleigh team that has been qualified for the winter games. If you are thinking this all sounds familiar then you have probably seen or heard of the film COOL RUNNINGS based on Jamaica’s first competing in Olympic bobsledding in 1988 at the Calgary Games, a heartwarming story that inspired the Cool Runnings film. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy After 12 years of absence from the winter Olympics Jamaica’s bobsleigh team has qualified for the 2014 sochi winter Olympics in Russia; exciting stuff for a country that has 80 degrees all year round. The two man bobsleigh team is being piloted by 46 year old Winston watt who is the second oldest man to pilot in Olympic history. Captain Winston watt and teammate Marvin Dixon are set to reheat the winter Olympic games as this generation of cool runners. [hr] [column2] [/column2] [column2_last] [/column2_last] [hr] Similarly to the original film the 2014 Jamaican Bobsleigh Team has met up with their financial accounts as well and are in need of […]
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