1988 winter olympics jamaican bobsled crash

It was the Caribbean countrys first Winter games, but hardly its last. Brian Gibson was also considered to direct, but he dropped out to do What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) instead. Cool Runnings is one of, if not the, most popular Olympic films of all time. I never want to direct.'"[3]. One of the pioneering Jamaican bobsled team which first competed at the 1988 Winter Games and inspired the movie "Cool Runnings" has big plans for racers from the Caribbean island at future Olympics. Jamaica's entry into the Winter Olympics started with the idea of two Americans who decided to take the sprinting . [8] Before Jon Turteltaub was officially hired, Jeremiah S. Chechik was slated to direct until he moved on to do Benny & Joon (1993) instead. [9][11][12] According to Yoba, Scott Glenn was also considered for the role. The Jamaicans took home the gold . Female Jamaican Bobsled Team Prepares for Olympics, 30 Years After Mens Debut. The team either failed to qualify or did not have a team during other Winter Olympics. For Harris, the bobsled, while it was foreign to him, was still a ticket to broaden his horizons. The last time Jamaica had a four-man sled team was at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. "Cool Runnings" is one of the most popular Olympics movies of the past few decades, and it's mostly made up. And the one thing I would like to communicate to people that people think that suffering is something to be avoided: no. Life is a struggle, anything worth doing in life is a struggle. According to Robinson, "(Steel) worked on the second unit for a while, and she said 'Never again. Updated Harris competed 20 years earlier at Canada Olympic Park with the bobsled team and was in town to help kick off the 20th anniversary of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. [29][30] On March 28, 2017, the film was released on region free Blu-ray as a Disney Movie Club Exclusive title. It is loosely based on the true story of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team's debut in competition during the 1988 Winter Olympics. So thats how I became involved in it. The original recruits were not former track stars but three members of the Army Capt. Their second run was completed in 59.37, which was the 25th worst time. READ MORE: Jamaican Olympian urges return of stolen Cool Runnings bobsled in Calgary, The thing that I would say kept me sane was school. Thus, after three runs, the Jamaicans were in 26th (last) place with a cumulative time of 3:00.60 after three runs which placed them 3.23 seconds behind Portugal for 25th place, and 10.19 seconds behind the Soviet team that was in third-place, heading into the final run. Erica Vella finds out what happened to the Jamaican bobsled team that competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Training for bobsled was a brutal existence, from your eyes open to your eyes closed, according to Stokes, with the team having to work hard in order to reach a competitive standard with no prior experience in the sport. The Jamaican bobsled team competes at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. In obituaries, Clayton has been deemed part of the first Jamaican Olympic bobsled team at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. Even rarer, it celebrates genuine sportsmanship, placing the emphasis back on how the game is played in the face of the winning-is-everything philosophy that permeates every aspect of contemporary life. "Loosely based," Harris stresses. Whatever Happened To The 1988 Jamaican Bobsled Team. [8][11], The film was shot in Calgary and Jamaica in February and March 1993. Also, many spoke about the novelty of having a tropical country compete in a cold-weather sport. The four of you [in] very confined space and so if you panic, you make it worse, so you just lay there and you just come to an end.". He has his bucket list and has been ticking off things all his life. Real TV footage of the actual crash was used in the film but was heavily edited to fit in with the film's version of the crash. He said he saw a bobsled for the first time in September 1987, and by February, he was competing in the Winter Olympics. [26], The film focuses entirely on the four-man bobsled team, which crashed their sled and finished last out of the 26 teams, as all 25 other teams were able to complete all four runs. The classic film loosely based on the true story of the first ever Jamaican bobsled team. He was able to get a major from the Jamaica Defence Force interested, who recommended two of the militarys top runners Mike White and Devon Harris as well as a helicopter pilot Dudley Stokes who could handle the steering of the sled. Stokes told CNN that the 1988 team started from zero.. Its been 34 years since Jamaica made its Winter Olympic debut in bobsled at the 1988 Games in Calgary, an unlikely appearance which was later immortalized in the Disney feature film, Cool Runnings.. Derice spots a photograph in Coolidges office, featuring his late father Ben, standing next to a fellow Olympic gold medal winner. Wanting to be an Army officer was a dream and then I applied and the dream became a realityWhat happened if I didnt? One of the things I noticed, other than thoroughly enjoying the spirit of the Olympics, was that there were only three Jamaican athletes in attendance. Other details such as the Canadian weather was also made up. Tags: Cinema, Disney, Films, Movies, sport, True Story. Cool Runnings was released in the United States on October 1, 1993, to generally positive reviews. [6] However, the film was only loosely based on actual events, with real life coach Pat Brown later saying that the team had never experienced any of the animosity from the other teams as depicted in the movie. The team train with Blitzer, though Coolidge refuses to fund the $20,000 needed to participate in the Olympics, believing the team's inexperience will bring shame to Jamaica. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider An additional member, Caswell Allen, pulled out of the team at the last minute and was replaced by Tal Stokes' brother, Chris Stokes. A lot of what we did at first was comedic. The real version goes like this: In 1987, two American businessmen, George Fitch and William Maloney, were living in Jamaica and were inspired by a local pushcart derby to form the countrys first bobsled team. "It's a feature Disney film, not much in it actually happened in real life," Stokes said on Reddit. Getty Images None of the athletes had ever seen a bobsled before. [21], While the Jamaicans did crash their bobsled on their third out of four scheduled runs, the film implied the team was a medal contender, having run a world record pace prior to the crash. In the film, Derice, Yul and Junior are Jamaican sprinters who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 1988 Summer Olympics (Junior accidentally tripped the other two, which is classic Junior). "Athletesgenerally dont treat each other that way.". The 1988 Jamaican Bobsled Team in Calgary consisted of Devon Harris, Dudley 'Tal' Stokes, Michael White, and Freddy 'Reggae' Powell. At first they told me they were looking for names, big stars, so I wouldn't be considered, but then they asked me to do a screen test. Stokes said he got into bobsledding because a colonel in the Army told him to. They went to Austria to take part in a World Cup race in order to qualify for Calgary and while the IOC still tried to disqualify the team shortly before the Olympics, various luminaries, including Prince Albert of Monaco, stepped in to champion their participation. [13] The film had total domestic earnings of $68,856,263 in the United States and Canada, and $86,000,000 internationally (with $416,771 earned in Jamaica), for a total of $154,856,263 worldwide. True Story of 12 Strong: The Horse Soldiers, True Story of I, Tonya: The Rise and Fall of Tonya Harding, True Story of The Post and The Pentagon Papers, True Story of Billy Jean King V Bobby Riggs Battle of The Sexes, True Story of Gold: The Bre-X Mining Scandal, True Story of Ray Kroc: The Founder of McDonalds, True Story of the American Sniper: Chris Kyle, How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order, Why WandaVision is changing TV shows forever, Ryan Reynolds new streaming service offers just one movie. In the end, Junior sells his car to finance the trip. Since 1988, the Jamaican bobsled team has continued to improve as a team. In 1994, they finished 14th ahead of both American teams, the Russians, and the French. Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and Carrie Russell finished in 19th place. Growing up in my neighborhood, there was not much opportunity, he said. While Jamaica is known for producing world-class athletes (Usain Boltanyone? Along the way, they picked up two more players Frederick Powell and Caswell Allen. Coolidge identifies the man as disgraced American bobsled medallist Irving Blitzer, who was disqualified for cheating in the 1972 Winter Olympics, and now works as a bookie, fortunately not far from where Derice lives. On the second day, he fell and injured his shoulder. Cool Runnings begins with the depiction of a local pushcart derby going down the Blue Mountains taking place on the island. Inspired by classic film Cool Runnings, Jamaica's bobsleigh team is BACK at the Winter Olympics after 24 years away - and the current four sledders now include an RAF sniper, who made the Queen . "It is a human interest story with a powerful lesson. American television stations aired footage of the four-man Jamaican team, and despite crashing during the third run and finishing last overall, went on to inspire the 1993 film Cool Runnings. This is where the film contrasts greatly from the reality. 1988 was second to last year that the winter and summer and Olympics were held the same year (every leap year), as 1992 was the last year that both Olympiads were held in the same year . How many medals has the Jamaican bobsled team won? Among those recruits was Harris, who was 22 at the time and serving in the Jamaican Army. An additional member, Caswell Allen, pulled out of the team at the last minute and was replaced by Tal Stokes brother, Chris Stokes. The team members were actually . And anytime you enter into a struggle, you are going to suffer. The men's team debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games four-man bobsleigh in Calgary, Alberta, was received as underdogs in a cold weather sport represented by a nation with a tropical environment. The Jamaican bobsled team that competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada was not composed of track sprinters, as the movie might lead you to believe. "All of us can do something in their lives.". The President of the Jamaica Olympic Association at the time supported the idea, and so preparations were made to hire athletes. The Jamaican Bobsled history continues In 2018, when a Jamaican women's sled debuted at the Olympics, driven by 2014 U.S. Olympian Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian. A four-man bobsled team from Jamaica qualified for the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary in 1988, according to Jamaica Experiences. Jamaica's bobsled team is determined to overcome financial issues and other challenges presented by the pandemic as their four-man lineup returns to the Winter Games for the first time in 24 years . The four-man Jamaican bobsled team will compete in Beijing for the . At the turn called the "Kreisel", Stokes lost control of the bobsleigh and it careened into the wall of the track, and flipped over on top of the four athletes. Dudley Stokes, Lt.Devon Harris and Pvt. I describe it as one of the toughest ghettos in the world, impoverished, violent, he said. The Colonel made the suggestion to me and because I was a Captain, you do as your told and obey orders. These countries included Jamaica (whose involvement spurred the film Cool Runnings in 1993), Mexico, and New Zealand. I always dreamed of being a summer Olympian for track but then my thinking shifted. The team consisted of Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, and Nelson Stokes, none of whom had ever bobsledded before (via Jamaicans). Fitch spent 56,000 of his own money to fund the team to Calgary, and Harris travelled to Canada with team-mates Dudley Stokes, Michael White, Freddie Powell and Caswell Allen. After pushing their sled to the finish line, the disappointed team members waved to the crowd and shook hands with a number of fans before leaving the track, assuming the story was over. [8] They improved in the second run, moving up to 22nd place,[9] but were in 31st place on the third run and finished only one place higher in 30th place during the fourth and final run. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: The Jamaicans were disqualified temporarily by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but it was not an appeal by the coach that led the IOC to reverse this decision. . I was in the Army at the time. He became the secretary general of the Jamaican Bobsled Federation as well as a motivational speaker, philanthropistand author. The true story inspired the 1993 movie 'Cool Runnings' starring the late actor John Candy. Their second run was completed in 59.37, which was the next-to-worst time (25th). The four-man team made it into the top 28 places to qualify for the Games, marking the first time a Jamaican four-man bobsled team will compete in 24 years since last appearing at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. [17] Harris and the Stokes brothers would continue to compete at the Winter Games in the bobsleigh events until the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Get a roundup of the most important and intriguing national stories delivered to your inbox every weekday. The film's soundtrack also became popular with Jimmy Cliff performing a cover of Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now", which reached the top 40 as a single in the United States, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. Thats the reality. The 1988 Jamaican bobsleigh team has forced winter sports to be taken seriously on the island. The team recorded its best placing of 14th at the Games in Lillehammer . Jamaica qualified in at least one men's bobsled event from 1988-2002, but then didn't send any teams until another unlikely run to a berth in the 2014 Games in Sochi in the two-man bobsled event . In Calgary, Blitzer registers the team, receiving an old bobsled from his former teammate Roger. It's been confirmed that another crew of Jamaican bobsledders will be representing their home country at this year's Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. Cool Runnings became hugely popular, grossing over $154 million at the box office. After pleading with the head of the Jamaican Olympic Association to find another way to qualify, protagonist Derice Bannock (Leon) discovers that a former U.S. bobsledder, Irv Blitzer (John Candy), is living in the island nation. The idea for a Jamaican bobsleigh team began in the summer of 1987, when George Fitch, a former Commercial Attache for the American embassy in Kingston, returned to Jamaica for a wedding and mentioned to Jamaican military officer and former soccer player Ken Barnes that the athletes in Jamaica should be talented enough to compete in any Olympic sport. The team did compete in future Olympic Games before retiring from the sport. There was more despair than hope. [2], The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games. Still, they relished in the opportunity. Here's video of the Jamaican bobsled team's Olympic debut in 1988: Sign up for notifications from Insider! The teams first day on the track is a disaster, finishing in last place. Theres a very uncomfortable position of actually being alive to watch your legacy unfold, he said. And according to the Jamaican Bobsleigh Federation, the very first team can actually trace back its origins to the pushcart derby. When the sled tipped, they were doing 130km/h (81mph), and their helmets scraped against the wall for 600m (2,000ft) until they came to a stop. On this episode of What happened to? Before pursuing his dream to become an Olympian, Harris enlisted in the army and in 1987, he was asked to try out of the first-ever Jamaican bobsledding team. But then over the years, we really became competitors and operated at the very highest level. The East German team, and their captain, Josef Groole- the current bobsled world record holder- constantly heckle the team during try-outs. The crash made sure we came back.. The Jamaicans struggle to drive the bobsled and adapt to the cold, though exercise and hard work eventually pays off. According to the New York . In reality, while Fitch did approach some of Jamaicas best athletes, nobody was interested and he was therefore forced to hold open try-outs. Team Jamaica will be competing in the 2022 winter games; it has qualified for the four-man bobsled and two other bobsled events in Beijing. Not only were they using less-than-reliable borrowed equipment, Stokes was also struggling with a shoulder injury. All of us love it.. Jamaica does in fact have a bobsled teamthe 1993 Disney film was based on the true story of the Jamaican national team's debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics. ", While the Hollywood version does not reflect reality, Harris says it capturedthe essence and spirit of the team., All of us enjoy the movie, he added. According to Today, on the team's third run, Dudley Stokes, who was driving the sled, lost control of the sled, which caused the sled to crash, while they were going 85 mph. The team got progressively worse and clocked in the worst time of run three at 1:03.19. Four sprinters from Jamaica, who had never competed at the Winter Olympics . The helmet worn by Jamaican bobsleigh pilot Dudley Stokes in the crash and made famous by the movie Cool Runnings could be yours - for an estimated US $3,500+. It will be a dream come true to see a womens team and a mens team compete.. Aside from bruised egos, no one was seriously injured in the crash. The first time the island nation had a bobsled team that qualified for the Winter Olympics was in 1988. If you enjoy What Happened To? At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, the Jamaican four-man bobsled team stunned the whole world with their debut. Bobsleigh at the 1988 Winter Olympics consisted of two events, at Canada Olympic Park.The competition took place between February 20 and February 28, 1988. , It will be fire on ice as #TeamJamaica secured their spot at the 2022 Beijing #WinterOlympics. A post shared by Reuters Sports Pictures (@reuterssport). Twenty-three nations participated in bobsleigh at the 1988 Games. Devon Harris always had a passion for sport and dreamed of competing in the Olympics as a teenager. Despite the odds being largely stacked against them, the team made their way to Canada, where they became the underdog story that took the world by storm. Since 1988, the Jamaican men bobsled team has . Coaches who were recruited from the U.S. and Austria helped teach the team how to bobsled. Powell became a de-facto publicist for the team by selling shirts andsinging their song, Hobin'and a Bobin'.. Harris describes his journey to the 1988 Winter Olympics and Erica speaks with the current Jamaican bobsled team, which is looking to build upon the success of previous teams. Updated February 11, 2022 8:02 pm. The men, George Fitch and William Maloney, thought the sport looked like bobsledding. The cast and crew filmed in Calgary first, to take advantage of the snow. The lowest part for us was the crash in Calgary, but it fueled our desire to come back, Harris said. The team did not start the fourth and final run. Subscribe to @olympics: http://oly.ch/Subscribe _____ #Beijing2022 replays: https://oly.ch/B22Replays. street, Canadas defence chief makes first trip to Ukraine since Russian invasion, Health Canada issues measles notice for attendees of U.S. religious gathering, Ex-husband of Edmonton soldier who tried to kill their children plans to sue Canadian military, Milton, Ont. "In the film they stretched the truth on racial discrimination,"he said. Three countries won medals in Calgary, with the Soviet Union leading the medal table, winning two medals, one gold and one bronze. Blitzer confronts Kurt Hemphill, his former coach, now a judge in the committee, asking him not to punish the Jamaicans, as they had nothing to do with his cheating scandal. On November 11, 1994, the film was released on VHS and LaserDisc by Walt Disney Home Video in the United States. Despite knowing that, they climbed out of their sled and walked across the finish line anyway, finishing the race to the cheers of the crowd. Georges Gobet/AFP via Getty Images, FILE Jamaican four-man bobsleigh pilot Dudley Stokes jumps in as his three teammates push off at the start of the second run of the Olympic four-man . Dudley "Tal" Stokes, who was on the 1988 Olympic team that inspired "Cool Runnings," took to Reddit in October to set the record straight about what the movie got wrong. "It is a long time . Jamaica competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.They competed in one sport, Bobsledding, in both the two-man and four-man events and finished outside the medal places in both competitions.Athletes were recruited from the Jamaica Defence Force, which saw Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris, and Michael White become the first . The two-man event took place first, with Dudley Stokes and White finishing in 30th position overall. Derice and Sanka track down Blitzer, who at first refuses to help Derice, until learning he is Ben Bannocks son. But while depicted otherwise in the film, the Jamaicans were extremely popular at the Olympics, with the American media in particular giving them plenty of coverage. February 27 & 28, 1988 The 1993 film Cool Runnings was a massive success at the box office, but took a number of liberties when it came to telling the full story of the 1988 Jamaican bobsleigh team. The story is a little more complicated than that. Coached in the bob by Howard Siler, a former World Championships medallist in the sport turned coach, amazingly, Fitch raised 15,000 in T-shirts made by his wife to buy a four-man sled from the Canadian team. It wasn't easy for the team to compete. Driver Dudley Stokes, who had suffered a shoulder injury during training, lost control of the sledon a turn, and the team crashed, forcing the sled on its side. [7] Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeffrey Wright, and Eriq La Salle were each considered for a role as one of the four Jamaican bobsledders. There were two Americans, George Finch and William Maloney who were big into push cart racing and thought it translated well to bobsledding. When you're in a crash, there is not much you can do, just have to go for the ride, and it's an interesting experience because you just see flashes of white that's going by and you hear the sled scraping on the ice, and it's a horrible sound in your ear, and then you smell the burning of fiberglass," Harris said. [7] Yoba later told Entertainment Weekly that he wrote the Jamaican bobsled song for his audition. Instead, other countries . Feb 19, 2022, 04:48 AM EST | Updated Feb 19, 2022. © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. Former Jamaican bobsledders ready to cheer on team after 24-year absence at Olympics, The four-man Jamaican bobsled team will compete in Beijing for the first time in 24 years. They trained in Austria and Lake Placid, N.Y. Stokes had very little training before the Olympics. On holiday at the time, Stokes said he got a phone call from his unit, instructing him to try out for box cart trials to test his capability for the sport. We can figure out a way to qualify, but we need funding to train and then we can be truly competitive. In reality, they started the project intending to compete in the two-man bobsleigh event only. It was meant to happen when it happened. Caswell Allen was the fourth man, but was injured prior to the start of the Olympics and was replaced by Chris Stokes, who was only in Canada to support his brother and new teammate Dudley. [21], In the movie, the weather is depicted as bitterly cold with a temperature of 25C (13F). That was such a blast. The squad finished last among 28 teams in the first two heats combined, but that didn't put a damper on its first appearance at the games since Nagano in 1998. Jamaica's four-man bobsleigh team last qualified for the Winter Olympics held in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, finishing in 21st. The Jamaican bobsled team that competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada was not composed of track sprinters, as the movie might lead you to believe. The film depicts them as forming the team as a four-man bobsleigh team right from the start. More than two decades after Jamaica's four-man bobsled team was last seen competing at the 1998 Winter Olympics, they will return to the ice once again for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. "We're like 'Chris, you're a sprinter, right? And what I saw in that series were these very average and ordinary people, but they had extraordinary dreams and they had an equally extraordinary desire to achieve those dreams.. Robinson signed on when Gibson was then the director at the time. If they had taken part in the final run, they would have had to complete a world-record shattering time under 48.00 seconds to bring home a medal.[22]. Read on to find out what happened to the members who competed in the famous four-man race: Dudley Stokes, Chris Stokes, Michael White, and Devon Harris. During one winter games, bobsledding became the focus of the world for a short time, as the sport had a rather unusual team that qualified. I feel a responsibility to inspire, he said. Once there, I was hooked. Now the Winter Olympics are getting their own 90s nostalgia hit, following news of the four-man Jamaican bobsleigh team qualifying for the event in Beijing for the first time since Nagano in 1998. He fails to qualify when fellow runner Junior Bevil accidentally stumbles, not only falling over himself, but knocking down Derice, and another competitor named Yul Brenner. In reality, they were in 24th place (out of 26) after their first run was completed in 58.04. Though they had the support of many, their journey to the Olympic medal stand did not go as they had hoped. Fitch funded much of the running costs himself, convinced a team from Jamaica could be successful. They won't be any more comedy movies about Jamaica in the Winter Olympics. Now, perhaps more importantly, the team have inadvertently inspired generations of Jamaican winter sports stars. Cool Runnings was released in the United States on October 1, 1993, to . Jamaicas two-man bobsled team of Shanwayne Stephens and Nimroy Turgott came in last in the event, but the nation will get a second bite at the cherry this week in the four-man event. East Germany won the most medals, with three. The film shows the men crashing into fields and farms as they practice. They got a fast start that day, but Stokes lost control of the sled at 85 miles per hour and crashed, according to The Guardian. "He (Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards) was one of the best things about the '88 Olympics him and the Jamaican bobsled team. Decades later, for the first time in Olympic history, the island nation qualified in three bobsled events the two-man bobsled, the womens monobob and the four-man bobsled as well as entering its first ever alpine skier. It's been 34 years since the four-man Jamaican bobsled team made its Olympic debut, enamoring the world with its underdog story and inspiring the beloved childhood staple "Cool Runnings." The team achieved some success in the years that followed -- including a surprise 14th-place finish during the 1994 Games -- but has been unable to qualify a . They eventually pushed their sled to the finish. Thirty years ago, the Jamaican bobsled team competed for the first time in the Winter Olympics. They crashed at speeds over 80mph (130kmh) and their helmets did scrap against the wall for 600m until they came to a stop. "[10] Lewis was officially hired in November 1992. This will be the 1st time JAM has qualified in 3 Olympic bobsled events: four-man, two-man and womens monobob pic.twitter.com/hRd5h7lDlG, Team Jamaica (@TeamJA876) January 17, 2022. [7], All of the team members returned for the 1992 Winter Olympics. But Barnes pushed him to try out for the team. One of the teammates, Devon Harris, told The Guardian they "did what any team would have done" and pushed the sled to the end of the track before lifting it. The two of them were drinking in a bar in Kingston and saw the pushcart derby on television and struck up on bobsled.. Despite the reprieve, it wasnt easy for the team to compete. I saw how amazing the opportunity was.". People thought it was ridiculous. Instead, they simply pushed it to the finish line. While the Jamaicans did get off to a fast start, after their first run they were 24th place out of 26 having completed it in 58.04. JAMAICA, WE HAVE A BOBSLED TEAM HEADING TO BEIJING! Unlike the inspirational scene in "Cool Runnings," the team did not lift the sled over their heads to carry it across the finish line. The four-man Jamaican bobsled team became a sensation at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. The team later trained in Calgary and Austria, then back to Lake Placid. Derice reprimands them severely. [6] Doug told The Baltimore Sun: "I got the offer to play Sanka, the guy I'd wanted to play from the very beginning. For the first time, a team from Ireland was also entered in the competition. The movie Cool Runnings came five years after Jamaica competed in the Calgary Games but according to Stokes, the film was conceptualized by Americans William Maloney and George Fitch before he and his teammates even started competing together. Life After Gold: Nearly 40 Years After 'Miracle on Ice,' Where Are the Players Now? RELATED: See Figure Skater Nancy Kerrigan . The funding is the biggest challenge, he said. In reality, the team was funded by Fitch and the Jamaican Tourism Board.