The Jamaican Bobsled team will send five athletes to compete for a medal

The Jamaican Bobsled team has returned to the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy. The country will be competing in the men’s four-man, men’s-two man and woman’s singles events. Their team consists of Shane Pitter, Joel Fearon, Junior Harris, Tyquendo Tracy and their only woman Mica Moore. 

The Jamaican Bobsled team made their first Winter Olympics in 1988. Being a small tropical island, this was the country’s first time qualifying for any Winter Olympic games. The team ended up crashing during the third heat of their four-man run getting marked with a “Did Not Finish” or a DNF though the team was able to get up and walk their sled to the finish line. The 1988 team started a streak of Olympic Jamaican Bobsled teams that lasted until 2002 and was rekindled when the team qualified for the 2014 Sochi Olympic games in Russia, the team has made it every year since 2014. The Disney movie “Cool Runnings” was made in 1993 based off of the original 1988 team. Liam Berry ‘29 said, “I thought ‘Cool Runnings’ was an amazing movie and I was excited to see Jamaica back at the Olympics.”

This Winter Olympics, the two-man Jamaican Bobsled team qualified for heat three, just like they did in 1988. The women’s Monobob racer Mica Moore even ended up getting to heat four, the final heat, in the women’s Monobob. She completed the track with a time of 4:01.31 and ended up coming short of a medal by 3.38 seconds. The four-man Bobsleigh team will compete in their first heat Feb. 21 for a chance at their first ever Winter Olympic Medal in any winter sport.

Cooper West ‘29 said, “It is cool to see smaller countries compete and do well in the winter sports.”

 Jamaica was one of four countries from the Caribbean to make the Olympic games. With a population of only 2.8 million people, Jamaica made it ahead of bigger countries like Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt and more. Even though they didn’t win gold, they improved on previous times