Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Next Jamaican Bobsled Team
When the Jamaican Bobsled Team entered the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary almost everyone laughed. What could those guys possibly know about a bobsled since they were from a tropical country? Very little it turned out. They finished dead last. After another disastrous finish, they improved to 14th in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. This time they were not to be laughed at. They had after all finished ahead of the United States and Russia. Every since then the world has been waiting for the next Jamaican Bobsled Team just as they have waited for the next Babe Ruth and the next Ted Williams. Where is that budding team? Now I know that we don’t have the personnel for a four-man team but my brother and I might qualify for the two-man team and of course it would not be the Winter Olympics but the Senior Olympics. Next you will tell me that there is no bobsled team in the Senior Olympics. So much the better for it gives us a head start. Disney did make a movie about the Jamaican Bobsled Team called Cool Runnings and it would be kind of neat to be a superstar of a movie. So to get started my brother and I, neither of whom had ever been on a sled (Hey we are thinking the next Jamaican bobSLED team) pulled a couple of sleds out of the garage to see if we could figure out how they worked. Spotting no moveable parts we decided it looked simple enough. Get on the sled and push off. What could go wrong? Plenty we found out. We decided to practice on the ice-covered driveway beside our house. I went first. Head first that is! Careening down the hill! Completely out of control. Bouncing from the snow berm on one side of the drive to the berm on the opposite side and then back to the other. I finally hit the large bank of snow and ice at the end of the driveway. The sled stopped! I didn’t! My brother went next with a little more luck. He made a sudden left turn and came to a screeching halt after only ten feet. He emerged rather unscathed. After practicing for another 30 minutes trying to perfect our technique, we had progressed to Keystone Cop status. And we had perfected our crash landing technique. That went over with a bang. We decided to call it a day and managed to retrieve most of the parts of our bodies and retreated back inside the house for some hot grog. The Disney movie will have to wait.
When the Jamaican Bobsled Team entered the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary almost everyone laughed. What could those guys possibly know about a bobsled since they were from a tropical country? Very little it turned out. They finished dead last. After another disastrous finish, they improved to 14th in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. This time they were not to be laughed at. They had after all finished ahead of the United States and Russia. Every since then the world has been waiting for the next Jamaican Bobsled Team just as they have waited for the next Babe Ruth and the next Ted Williams. Where is that budding team? Now I know that we don’t have the personnel for a four-man team but my brother and I might qualify for the two-man team and of course it would not be the Winter Olympics but the Senior Olympics. Next you will tell me that there is no bobsled team in the Senior Olympics. So much the better for it gives us a head start. Disney did make a movie about the Jamaican Bobsled Team called Cool Runnings and it would be kind of neat to be a superstar of a movie. So to get started my brother and I, neither of whom had ever been on a sled (Hey we are thinking the next Jamaican bobSLED team) pulled a couple of sleds out of the garage to see if we could figure out how they worked. Spotting no moveable parts we decided it looked simple enough. Get on the sled and push off. What could go wrong? Plenty we found out. We decided to practice on the ice-covered driveway beside our house. I went first. Head first that is! Careening down the hill! Completely out of control. Bouncing from the snow berm on one side of the drive to the berm on the opposite side and then back to the other. I finally hit the large bank of snow and ice at the end of the driveway. The sled stopped! I didn’t! My brother went next with a little more luck. He made a sudden left turn and came to a screeching halt after only ten feet. He emerged rather unscathed. After practicing for another 30 minutes trying to perfect our technique, we had progressed to Keystone Cop status. And we had perfected our crash landing technique. That went over with a bang. We decided to call it a day and managed to retrieve most of the parts of our bodies and retreated back inside the house for some hot grog. The Disney movie will have to wait.
