Jamaican bobsled team trains for Olympics in ‘home away from home’

Team members have been making annual trek to Adirondacks for 37 years

By David Escobar

Before the Jamaican bobsled team made its world debut in 1988, its dream of Olympic glory began with a makeshift sled and an unconventional training ground on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid.

“I borrowed a buddy’s truck, and we took our four-man [team] down to the toboggan chute, said Pat Brown, a former U.S. Olympic bobsledder who was recruited to coach the Jamaican team in 1987.

The team that competed 37 years ago in Calgary went on to inspire the iconic Disney film “Cool Runnings.” Brown, who has since returned to Jamaica Bobsleigh as its development director, is now working to boost its program back onto the international stage.

Modest beginnings

Jamaica’s original Olympic bobsled team helped fund its journey to the games through t-shirt and merchandise sales. Sleds and other sliding equipment were in poor condition, making the team particularly prone to accidents like the infamous crash that derailed its third slide at the Calgary games.

The team — and its equipment — have come a long way since its first Olympic appearance. Modern sleds are adorned with decals of corporate sponsors and the green, yellow and black colors of the Jamaican flag.

Listen to this story by clicking the link below:

Since its launch, Jamaican Bobsleigh has undergone seismic transformations, sending men’s bobsleds to seven Winter Games. The women’s team qualified for its first Olympics in 2018, competing in Pyeongchang.

Audra Segree, road manager and assistant coach for the team, was the brakewoman for the two-woman sled that competed in South Korea. She said she wants to help the new generation of bobsledders reach the Olympics within the next two Games.

“I like where the program is heading,” said Segree. “Granted, we have a lot to work on, but it’s good to say we have a start.”

The current team raises funds to pay for some of its expenses, and sustaining support has started to materialize. In addition to securing corporate sponsorships, North Country Sports Council, which represents the team, brokered a deal with Hotel Saranac in 2024 to establish the team’s headquarters in downtown Saranac Lake.

Regular fixtures in the Adirondacks

Now, with a more permanent home, the Jamaican team is poised to become a staple of the Saranac Lake community, all while in pursuit of the country’s first Olympic medal in bobsled. The results have been promising, with athletes competing in tournaments around the world to gradually improve the team’s overall ranking. To reach its goal of Olympic glory by 2030, the federation is tapping a new crop of emerging talent, like 17-year-old Adanna Johnson, to be the new face of its iconic brand.

“This is a sport where you can stay in it for a while before you have to retire,” said Johnson. “I’m really grateful that I can start at such a young age to progress and just improve overall.”

Over the past four decades, a throughline for the Jamaican team has been its practice time at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, one of just three Olympic-level sliding tracks in North America. One of the team’s most significant tasks has been mastering proper technique on the push track, an icy surface where the athletes practice launching the sled. Many of the team members honed their athletic abilities with other sports before taking on bobsledding due to the absence of winter in their tropical home country.

Tyreek Bucknor, 23, is part of a two-man sled competing at the North American Cup in January. He spent the day before his race practicing on the push track, where he diligently studied his body stance on a replay screen between runs. The learning process, he said, cannot be rushed.

“It’s something that looks easy when you watch it on film,” said Bucknor. But when it comes to doing it, it takes a lot of repetition, a lot of days of work.”

Training for an Olympic event can be a full-time job, and bobsleigh is no exception. Strength and conditioning workouts are constant, but while in the Adirondacks, Bucknor said the team will optimize its time on the ice to practice technique.

“We don’t have the resources and the ability to train as well as other teams like the U.S.,” said Bucknor. “Whatever time we get, we make a lot of use of it, and we still stay competitive.”

With every run down the ice at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, the Jamaican team gains experience — and on race day, qualification points — invaluable to its dream of returning to the Olympics. Sled pilot Shane Pitter, 25, said his expectations are high.

“We want to do well in the Olympics, so there could even be another ‘Cool Runnings,’” Pitter said. “We are the dream team now.”

Whether or not the team medals within the next decade, the Jamaican bobsled team is set out to prove something else — that a tropical nation can compete against the sport’s biggest powerhouses on the world stage.

David Escobar is a Report For America Corps Member. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer.