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Jamaican bobsled team arrives to warm welcome

First training runs will be in Calgary, not Whistler

By Clare Ogilvie and Jesse Ferreras

Fast, fast, fast.

And that is just the way the Jamaican bobsled team wants the 2010 sliding track to be.

“I really like the speed, it is very exciting,” said Hannukkah Wallace, the team’s driver, as he walked the track during his first visit to Whistler this week.

“I have heard that it is really fast so I need to get a lot of runs on it.”

The team was hoping to get some ice time this week — they wanted about 15 minutes a day. But it was unlikely, said Craig Lehto, director of the Whistler Sliding Centre.

“No, there is no plans for that,” he said.

“There are plans for them to have access to the track during the international training week in January.”

Said team coach Devon Harris: “We would rather stay here, but if we can’t get the ice time then Calgary will be the place to go.”

The $106 million track already has a reputation for being the fastest in the world, with bobsleds reaching 148 km/hr on its 16 curves.

Earlier the team poured over a map of the track searching for Corner 13, nicknamed the 5:45 during homologation as several teams crashed there at exactly that time of the day.

The Jamaican team garnered global attention during the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games when they came out of nowhere to become the darling of the event. The sliders captured Canada’s heart when they crashed spectacularly near the end of the race and then carried their sled across the finish line. Their story was immortalized in the Disney film Cool Runnings, which played in the background as the team visited the track house at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Harris, who is traveling with the team and was captain of the 1988 team, hopes for a different kind of fame in 2010.

“I now have a chance to help them do what I couldn’t do in Calgary, which is to win a medal,” he said.

After stories ran in The Province chronicling the team’s desire to make the Whistler area their long-term base of operations, the hamlet of Pemberton decided to adopt the team, providing accommodation, food, and transportation.

“Their brand recognition is global and it is a very positive thing,” said Pemberton resident Ian Porter, who is offering the team free accommodation at his Copperdome Lodge and spearheaded the town’s decision to adopt the Jamaican bobsled team.

“I can’t think of another brand where you can say it to someone and they smile. It is very positive.

“It is about underdogs, who are underfunded. But it is also all about passion and drive, and that is really cool.”

The team arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Saturday, where a crowd of supporters greeted them. The excitement carried over into the next day, when about 100 Pembertonians gave them a heroic welcome at the new Pemberton Community Centre.

Organizers of the community reception hoisted three Jamaican flags above them. People in the audience waved miniature Canadian and Jamaican flags as they were introduced. Bob Marley and other reggae legends were blasted in the community hall’s sound system as the team greeted locals. An excited Pemberton resident brought a VHS copy of Cool Runnings for the team to sign.

The small town’s welcome touched the team and Harris deeply. Speaking to a cheering crowd, Harris said Pemberton’s warm welcome recalls the “typical warm days we have in Jamaica.”

Harris said he knows he’s going to get questions about which character he was in Cool Runnings. Without anyone asking he said he was John Candy’s character — an overweight, burnt-out American coach who makes a living as a bookie.

“What can I say, I went on a diet, got a tan and this is the new me,” Harris said, eliciting laughs from the audience.

Jamaica and Canada, he said, have shared a special relationship since the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, where he said Canada welcomed the team with open arms.

Lascelles Brown, a member of Jamaica’s bobsled team from 1999 to 2004, won a silver medal for Canada in the two-man bobsled race at the 2006 Games in Turin.

Beyond that, the original team actually had to borrow a sled from Canada for the 1988 Games. As Harris tells it, they rode it, crashed it and then returned it to Canada. Since then they’ve gotten a new sled.

When asked whether the team is ready for the Olympics, Harris said it has a lot of athletic talent but needs some time on a sliding track.

  “It really comes down to a question of getting enough ice time for our driver who’s fairly young,” Harris said. “I don’t think we’re medal contenders in these Games, to be realistic, but you’re in the race to win and you’re going to be trying your darndest to do that.”

Meanwhile, work is continuing on the WSC said Lehto, with work on sun and rain protection underway.

“With the amount of rain that the area experiences (that) makes it quite tough so we have a good percentage of it already covered,” he said.

“The more roof and the more sun protection we have the more sustainable the facility is and the less elbow grease we have to use in to make sure it is a… fair field of play, so these additions will go along way both for the Games (and) also for the legacy.”

When international teams come in January for bobsled training they will get at least two runs a day.

The FIBT Bobsled and Skeleton World Cup will be held from Feb 2 to 7. Tickets will go on sale locally for the event.