Members of the famous Jamaican bobsled team who won the hearts of fans around the world at the 1988 Winter Olympics sat down to speak about their historic debut on Today.
Devon Harris, Michael White and Chris Stokes said that 30 years later they still could not believe they managed to even qualify for the Calgary Games, and noted that the real story of what happened is even crazier than the movie about their experience, Cool Runnings.
That is because the movie did not show the fact that the men were already at the Games when they decided to enter the four-man bobsled event on three days notice.
And in that time, the men had to find and train a new teammate who had never even been on ice before in his life.
People, tey know they can’t believe: Three members of the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team appeared on Today for an interview Wednesday morning (Devon Harris, Michael White and Chris Stokes above)
Jamaica they have a bobsled team: They revealed that they decided to enter the four man race at the Olympics just three days before the event in Calgary
The fastest of the fastest of Jamaican sprinters: In that time the group had to recruit a fourth member who had never before been on ice and teach him to bobsled (still from cool runnings)
‘It was the second week of the Olympics. We go, hey. We should enter to win a medal,’ said Harris.
There was one problem however, there were only three members of the team, so the men recruited the brother of Dudley Stokes, Chris.
‘In three days, we taught him everything we knew about pushing a sled, because he didn’t know that much. We only needed three days.’
The movie did not show the men scrambling in the final days to get the team ready, but it did depict the fateful bobsled run that ended their dreams of a medal.
Dudley, who was badly beat up for a week of competing, had hurt his shoulder on the second run, and the third time down the track lost control as the bobsled was traveling at 85 mph.
But then, just like in the movie, the crowd then began to wildly cheer and applaud the men, who lifted their sled and walked to the finish line.
The end: The Jamaican team crashed during their third run (above) and did not medal
‘That was the lowest point of the experience at that moment, and then they just lifted us up again,’ said Harris.
‘They buoyed us.’
The men would all return to compete again in the Olympics, and the three team members who appeared on Today are still involved in the sport three decades after their Olympic debut.
And this year will be another first for the tropical island nation, with the women’s bobsled team making their debut in South Korea.