Thirty Years After Cool Runnings, Jamaican Women Qualify For Olympic Bobsled

Thirty years after a team of Jamaican bobsledders inspired a Disney movie with their unlikely appearance at the Calgary Winter Olympics, the country will send its first female bobsled team to compete in Pyeongchang.

Over the weekend, the Jamaican women’s bobsled team, coached by former German Olympic medal bobsledder Sandra Kiriasis, became the first female athletes from Jamaica to qualify for the Olympics. The team is piloted by Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian, who finished 11th while competing for the U.S. in Sochi. “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,” she said in a statement. Former sprinters Carrie Russell and Audra Segree will be making their first Olympic appearances next month in Korea as brakemen.

The Jamaican team will compete in a field of 20 sleds that also includes a team of Nigerian women, who are themselves the first athletes from their country to compete at the Winter Olympics.