For Brown, This Run Is Like, Cool, Mon

There is no Jamaican bobsled team at these Winter Olympics. New Zealand is here. So is Australia. Monaco, too.

Alas, no Jamaicans.

Jamaican bobsled team. Those were the three words that generated so many smiles, and sold so many T-shirts. But the team that inspired a Disney movie is not here.

“Cool Runnings” shared the story of that first Jamaican team, the tropical islanders who became the novelty of the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. The movie came out five years later, to rave reviews in Jamaica.

Lascelles Brown loved the movie. Bobsledding? Until the movie, he had never heard of it.

He was 19 then, living in a Jamaican town called May Pen. He is 31 now, and on Sunday he became the first Jamaican bobsledder to win an Olympic medal -- a silver, on behalf of Canada.

“I’m a proud Canadian,” he said. “I’m a proud Jamaican too.”

Brown raced in Salt Lake City four years ago, for Jamaica, finishing 28th in the two-man competition. Pierre Lueders did too, for Canada, finishing fifth.

Together, for the driver from the prairies of western Canada and the brakeman from the Caribbean, a silver medal.

“Had he not been here, we wouldn’t have had a chance,” Lueders said. “Now, with him, we can do anything.”

At 18, Brown was an athlete in search of the right sport.

“I used to do boxing,” he said. “I couldn’t manage all the punches.”

Throwing them?

“Taking them,” he said.

Time to try something new. Hey, that sledding thing looked cool in “Cool Runnings.”

Said Brown: “I watched the movie. That’s where I learned about bobsledding.”

For a brakeman, big and strong works well. Once upon a time, the U.S. bobsledders recruited Herschel Walker for the job. At 6 feet and 220 pounds, Brown had the raw size.

And he prospered. He wasn’t the only Jamaican inspired by the movie. As the novices tried to make “Jamaican bobsled team” something more than a punch line, he qualified for the national team.

“We got some good adventures together,” he said. “But we have a great disadvantage in equipment and money and ice time.”

He wanted to be great. The constant shuttles between mountain slopes and palm trees would not suffice. He needed snow, all winter. So, in 2002, he moved to Calgary for training.

He tells the rest of the story in a few words.

“I met a lady,” he said. “We fell in love. We got married.”

Lueders spotted him in Salt Lake City. The natural talent, he could see. The residence, he had no idea.

“I just thought he was another Jamaican guy,” he said. “I didn’t know he was living in Calgary.”

From those origins came the top bobsled team in a country that takes its winter sports, and its winter, quite seriously. He competed with Lueders all winter, waiting on the Canadian government to process his citizenship application, hoping the lawyers would take care of the matter.

The Olympics loomed. The Games had gone from months away to weeks away.

“One day it hit me,” Brown said. “It might not happen.”

On Jan. 20, he was granted Canadian citizenship. Thirty days later, he made two countries proud.

“I want to thank the Canadians for embracing me,” he said. “I want to thank all my Jamaican friends and teammates too.”

It was enough to make a man cry.

“It’s a great day for Pierre. He cried,” Brown said. “I can’t cry. But it’s a great day for me.”