Jamaica's bobsled team has qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but the team will have to drum up enough funds to get to Russia, Yahoo Sports reported.
Not having been qualified for the Olympics since 2002, getting selected for the Sochi Games this year for its two-man bobsled team is a big achievement. The only problem is that the team needs lots of money to get there.
According to Yahoo Sports, bobsled pilot Winston Watts, age 46, is a veteran of three Winter Olympic Games and came out of retirement to return Jamaican bobsleds to the Olympics. Now, he's also leading the fundraising campaign to drum up at least $80,000 to travel to Sochi.
"In truth, we still don't really know at the moment if we'd even have enough funds or sponsorship to fly to Sochi itself for the Games itself," Watts told the London Telegraph. "It all depends. Our families need to be taken care of first. If there's no funding, who knows?"
American business interests and the Jamaican Olympic Association stepped in to help foot the costs when Jamaica's first bobsled team had managed to break into the worldwide consciousness in 1988.
Those options have, for the moment, dried up, so Watts has taken his cause straight to the digital world. Rather than asking for thousands of dollars from a few donors, the bobsled team is now seeking to harness a few dollars from thousands of people.
Jamaica has partnered with CrowdTilt to create a crowdfunding site, and as of 11 p.m. ET, the fundraising effort had raised $15,000, with eight days remaining in the campaign.
The first Jamaican bobsled team competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and became a cultural sensation that inspired songs and a 1993 movie, "Cool Runnings," that starred the late John Candy:
Yahoo Sports recently spoke with many of the principals involved in the original "Jamaica bobsled" movement, and produced this "Memorable Moments" documentary.
To learn more about the team, and to contribute if you so desire, visit the officially sanctioned fundraising website at CrowdTilt.
