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         After 12 Years, Jamaican Bobsledders Return to Winter Olympics

   by James Brooke

   A generation ago, the Jamaican bobsled team charmed the world with the
   Hollywood hit movie Cool Runnings.
   But after competing in five Winter Olympics, the Jamaicans twice failed
   to qualify and the team dropped out of sight.
   Then, 17 days before the start of the 2014 Olympics in Russia, the
   Jamaicans unexpectedly received the green light.
   They were training in a rural corner of the American state of Wyoming.
   Now, they call themselves: Cool Runnings, The Second Generation. Their
   slogan? "The hottest thing on ice."
   At 46, Winston Watts is a veteran of three Olympics and pilot of the
   two-man bobsled.
   "Age is just a number. I guarantee, I tell you that," Watts said. "It
   doesn't matter how old I am, it's how you take care of your body,
   that's for one. It's what you put into your body and day-to-day
   activities that you do is, you know I'm 46 year[s] old, straight, but
   if you look at me, I look like I'm 26.  So age is just a number, as I
   said."
   To raise money, the athletes appealed through the Internet - something
   that did not exist during the team's 1988 debut at the Calgary
   Olympics. Within two weeks, the Jamaicans raised $180,000.
   Soon, the team was on the far side of the globe from the American West
   - in the mountains of southern Russia.
   But not all of their gear arrived on time. So Watts spent time the
   first days posing with tourists and buying a new mobile phone to call
   folks back home, some of whom are still skeptics.
   "Oh man, people are always asking me if I am crazy," Watts said. "Why
   me? But I always look at myself as if I were the chosen one."
   Watts said the 1993 Cool Runnings movie inspired the Jamaican team
   today.
   "Oh man, I love that movie," he said. "That movie was so great for
   Jamaica bobsled team, and for the second generation, the third
   generation so on. Up until today I really do watch that movie."
   And the future?
   "I still plan to keep going, so we get the new generation," Watts said.
   "Then I fade it out and hopefully become one of the coaches."
   For now, they are focused on the Sochi Winter Olympics. And after being
   reunited with their gear, the Jamaicans are practicing for their race
   on the curving, iced track.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/after-12-years-jamaican-bobsledders-r
   eturn-to-winter-olympics/1847576.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/after-12-years-jamaican-bobsledders-return-to-winter-olympics/1847576.html