[iriefm_breakingnews][/iriefm_breakingnews]

Jamaica sending its first women’s bobsled team to Olympics

by January 16th, 2018

Jamaica, 30 years after the men made their first historic appearance and after undergoing structural reorganization leading into the season, is sending a women’s bobsleigh team to next month’s Winter Olympics

They will be led in Pyeongchang by American-born Jazmine Fenlator switched from the United States to join her father’s native Jamaica in 2015.

Also on the team is brakewoman Carrie Russell, who won a gold medal in the 4x100m relay at the World Athletics Championships in 2013, will make her first Winter Olympic appearance in South Korea.

“This is one of the happiest moments of my life,” the 27-year-old said. “I never dreamed that I would become a bobsled athlete.”

Fenlator and Russell will be joined in the team by brakewoman Audra Segree, who also competed on the track as a sprinter.

There will be 20 sleds in the women’s bobsled event in Pyeongchang. These Olympics mark the 30th anniversary of Jamaica’s famed men’s bobsled debut at the Calgary Games in 1988, which led to the making of the film Cool Runnings.

Jamaica’s women will be targeting a top-10 result, having finished seventh at December’s Winterberg World Cup.

They are currently ranked 31st in the Olympic qualification list and there are 30 places in the competition.

If any higher-placed nation withdraws their team, Jamaica would be given a qualification spot for their seventh appearance in the men’s two-man event.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *