Sometimes history calls for us to take a stand, and you have to decide: Are you going to run or are you going to stand? Are you willing to take the risk? Are you willing to pay the price?

It’s 12:38 am in Beijing and I am wide awake. It’s not so much jet lag as it is the many things that have been weighing heavy on my mind these last few days. In this instant, from the tray of things to ponder, I have chosen Jazmine Fenlator’s case against the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), which in a few hours will be before the Court of Arbitration in Sport.

My public eulogy is already written. At least a part of it. It will say that I was part of the 1988 Cool Runnings Jamaica Bobsleigh team. Why then do I spend so much time in sport administration? It is not for the shoes, or trips, or position or power. It is simply to serve. My many blessings in life came from others whom in serving helped me. I think of Herb McKenley, who gave me my first pair of spikes and “Foggy” Burrowes, who mentored me while I was in junior college in New York, and Joseph Yancey who took me into his track club there.

As custodian of a premier Olympic brand in Jamaica bobsleigh, I have a duty to care for it, to grow it and pass it on better than I received it. More importantly I have a duty to pass on service to athletes. So here I am wide awake in the Beijing morning as I do just that.

Last December 19, I, along with other bobsleigh federation presidents, crafted a letter to the IBSF outlining the problems we saw with the simple doubling of race points in a Europa Cup race far away in Winterberg, Germany. Two races had been planned; one on December 4 and the other on December 5. The December 4 race was cancelled and the IBSF simply awarded the same points for the December 4 race as it did for the December 5 race which went ahead.

Even as I write this I wonder why someone thought that was a good idea. I endorsed the concern based on the principle of it. Teams should race for their points; it’s sport. I had no idea at the time that this would come knocking loudly at my own front door…and the words of John Donne resound in my head on this clear and still Beijing night:

“No man is an island…

Each man’s death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind,

Therefore, send not to know,

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.”

The bells on, December 5, were tolling for Jamaica and I did not know it.

Now in a battle for the last qualifying position in the two-woman event, the French team that benefited from that awarding of points tied with Jazmine Fenlator and Audra Segree and, by virtue of having earned World Cup points as well, was awarded the spot. Jazmine and Audra did not travel to Europe to race in the World Cup.

What does one do? “As suh it guh” is always present and tempting to the soul weary of battle and not wanting to upset the status quo. Mine is not such a soul. This was wrong. I was faced with confronting the IBSF that has been a steadfast and reliable supporter of the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation over the past 30 years. Without the support of the IBSF there would be no Jamaica bobsleigh programme. These are my friends and colleagues. I serve in the leadership and Jamaica will be hosting the 2023 IBSF Congress. It is easier to confront an enemy than a friend.

I have seen sports administrators shrink from their principles and conscience and cower before their governing body because they need the money or the trip, or are simply weak and afraid. I despise that and checked my own heart for any sign of it. If it ever were there, Dudley Stokes had beaten it out of me a long time ago. “Champ,” as he would call me, “stand up and be a man”. “Yes, Daddy.”

The list of Jazmine’s complaints are long; from gender equity to minority representation. I am generally in agreement with her to greater or lesser extents depending on the subject. However, on the issue of fair play in sport, we are perfectly aligned. And this is what this case is about. Jamaica’s original bobsleigh team got into the Olympics because someone stood up for our right to compete. That, too, I will pass on to this and the next generation of Jamaican bobsleighers.

So, we will stand; we will take the risk, and we are ready to pay the price.

Editor’s note: The views expressed by N Christian Stokes were submitted for publication prior to the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which resulted in Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian failing in her bid to compete in the two-woman bobsleigh event at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Ad hoc Division of the CAS, on Monday, denied Fenlator-Victorian’s application to overturn a decision by the IBSF which she felt allocated spots for the Olympics based on an inaccurate points tally and gave France the spot, instead of Jamaica. The three-member arbitration panel that heard the matter via videoconference on Sunday evening said the full award with reasons will be published shortly.