It's not just Jamaica with a 'Cool Runnings' story. There are sliders from all over the world now

Tim Reynolds · The Associated Press

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 1:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

It doesn't snowfall successful Jamaica. Or Malta. Or Ghana. There's been a possibly dusting reported connected uncommon occasions successful parts of Thailand and Malaysia. And cipher thinks of Spain, Colombia, Israel, Brazil and Taiwan arsenic wintertime sports superpowers.

They're each sliding anyway.

Those 10 nations — with a combined 5 Winter Olympic medals betwixt them implicit the years, each won by Spain — were portion of a grounds turnout of 38 nations implicit the past 2 weeks astatine the satellite bobsleigh and skeleton championships successful Lake Placid, a motion that the sports are inactive growing. It's expected that immoderate of the athletes from those nations, adjacent without a sliding way successful their homelands and not wrong thousands of miles of those countries successful immoderate cases, volition vie astatine the Olympics adjacent winter.

"I'm truly blessed that much nations are here, and this athletics is growing," said Adanna Johnson, a 17-year-old women's bobsleigh pilot from Jamaica aft she finished the monobob contention successful Lake Placid past week. "I deliberation 1 of the reasons is for the Olympics, they lone let for 3 sleds from the bigger nations to vie and that benignant of allows smaller nations to get bumped up successful the rankings."

True, determination are spots acceptable speech astatine the Olympics for nations that are processing teams to vie connected the sport's biggest stage. That's wherefore determination person been sliders from American Samoa, Bermuda, Greece, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Tonga and the Virgin Islands successful the games implicit the years.

Skeleton jock Jonathan Yaw wants to adhd Malaysia to that list. He's a erstwhile handball subordinate from Australia who slides for Malaysia — the state wherever helium was calved and his father's homeland — successful ample portion due to the fact that of a bequest programme established successful southeast Asia to beforehand wintertime sports aft the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Yaw finished 29th astatine the satellite championships past week. Out of 29 sleds, that is. He wasn't bothered and showed immoderate progress; for example, helium bushed 2018 Olympian and 2026 hopeful Akwasi Frimpong of Ghana successful their last tally of the event.

"We person immoderate bully ambassadors for our sport," Yaw said. "And, you know, successful sport, sometimes you get the arrogance and the cockiness. I privation to amusement radical that you tin beryllium humble. You tin conscionable enactment your caput down and enactment hard and inactive execute bully results and beryllium a bully relation exemplary for kids."

Yaw has had immoderate success, and there's a young miss successful Lake Placid who has impervious of that. She's the proprietor of the archetypal medal Yaw ever won successful a North American Cup contention and wore it to the event's opening ceremonial past week. He gave it to her to works a seed, helium hopes.

"She really started skeleton successful Lake Placid due to the fact that of that medal and due to the fact that she met me," Yaw said. "That brings maine to tears. If I tin bash that for 1 kid, past connected a level similar the Olympics oregon satellite championships hopefully I'll beryllium capable to bash overmuch more."

Shannon Galea — who works for the Canadian Olympic Committee — is present a skeleton slider representing Malta done the practice of her begetter and grandparents. She trains erstwhile she tin successful Lake Placid present and has athletes from Malta and different places reaching retired for guidance connected however they tin effort to go Olympians.

Like Yaw, she was past successful the women's worlds race.

WATCH | Canadian bobsledder Cynthia Appiah reflects connected World Cup metallic and the play ahead:

"Last spot is not fun," Galea said. "But I'm fortunate. A batch of athletes successful the tract are supportive."

She was a prima jock successful a slew of sports increasing up. Softball was astir apt her champion game; she was a pitcher throwing astatine precocious speeds, and present she finds herself sliding headfirst down mountains astatine adjacent faster speeds — she topped retired successful Lake Placid past week astir 72 mph — to pursuit that Olympic hope.

"I played 5 varsity sports," Galea said. "This is not a varsity sport. This is, `go retired determination and beryllium psycho."'

The sliding sports person immoderate accepted powers. Germany has agelong been the world's astir palmy nation, whether the athletics is bobsleigh, skeleton oregon luge. The U.S. — with Kaysha Love successful monobob and the mixed skeleton squad of Austin Florian and Mystique Ro — was the lone federation to triumph much than 1 golden successful Week 1 of the satellite championships. Austria, Italy, Britain, Switzerland, Latvia and Canada are besides among the nations that are traditionally strong.

China is coming, bolstered by monolithic concern successful its programs astir the 2022 Beijing Games. Brazil had a slider — Nicole Rocha Silveira — triumph 2 women's skeleton World Cup medals this play and decorativeness 4th astatine the satellite championships. Ukraine astir got its archetypal skeleton medal astatine a satellite championships this twelvemonth arsenic well, with Vladyslav Heraskevych finishing fourth.

"We're showing what tin hap if you believe," Heraskevych said. "And if you fight."

This improvement of sliding-sport dreamers mightiness person truly taken disconnected arsenic a novelty erstwhile Jamaica sent a bobsleigh team to the 1988 Calgary Olympics — a communicative that was turned into the 1993 movie "Cool Runnings." The movie is mostly fictionalized but is inactive the astir recognizable portion of the Jamaica bobsleigh story.

Johnson was a gymnast erstwhile she was recruited into sliding. She didn't cognize what "Cool Runnings" was. And present she's surviving her ain mentation of the story, aft yet seeing the movie.

"They made america ticker it," Johnson said. "I had nary thought what it was like."