In the weeks since the announcement of the Jamaica bobsleigh team’s historic Olympic qualifications we have done dozens of interviews covering every major world news organisation.

My favourite fun one was The Today Show with NBC. My favourite intellectually stimulating one was with CBC out of Canada on the meaning and sustainability of the Olympic movement (I will focus on this in another article), and Monday morning the crew did the NBC Olympic overage show with Kevin Hart. Snoop couldn’t participate as he is performing in the Super Bowl half-time show. Who knows where Kevin would go with this?

The intense media schedule started on the qualification announcement and has continued into the Games. It has slowly been getting on the nerves of our national high-performance director, a military man, hard as nails, Mark Silva.

Once we were on a Zoom call reviewing the season when he came on from a hospital bed with tubes coming from all over him. “Mark,” we asked in a panic, “What happened?”

“I just had a heart attack, don’t worry about it, what is going on out there in Park City?” referring to a delay in the delivery of sleds from our previous race in Whistler, Canada. So that’s whom we are dealing with.

Mark came to us already well accomplished in bobsleigh and now has the distinction of taking a disparate group of under-resourced Jamaicans to an historic qualification achievement. He is a man to be treated with respect.

As we approach official training and the races, we are operating under a simple Mark Silva question: Will it make the sled go faster? If the answer is no, then forget it.

“Mark, we have a few more interviews tomorrow,” I said in a JBSF management meeting in the café at the Olympic Village on Tuesday.

“Doc,” as he has taken to call me, “will it make the sled go faster?” in his thick Welsh accent.

“No, Mark. Then forget it!” he snapped.

Things have not been going very smoothly despite the best efforts of the administrators on the ground. It’s a big ask for them in a strange environment. And, at any rate, generally, the idea that everything will go smoothly; that flights will not be missed, that there won’t be long waits in airports, that shuttle buses will not be missed, is misplaced.

Plan well, but things will get off track; either complain or fix it. The JBSF has a “fix it” culture.

Anyway, I was glad to see the arrival of Jamaica Olympic Association Second Vice-President Robert Scott to the village. Director Scott is competent, strategic, diplomatic, amiable, and of good humour.

“Who is that?” Mark asked. “Where’s my… physio?”

I did not know which one to answer first, then another question came.

“Will he make the sled go faster?”

Well, not directly, Mark, and I corked my ears.

It’s a single-minded focus on the essentials of performance that has got us here, and that, with God’s grace, will get us good results at the Games.

Being present and focusing is indispensable in sport and business alike. I take with me on this and other journeys a quote from Daymond John of Fubu and Shark Tank fame: “You just have to stay focused and believe in yourself, and trust in your own ability and judgement.” If that is too sanitised, revert to the Silva principle.

I have the privilege of working with some of the most competent and focused people in the world. Darcy Parkins, our vice-president of finance and administration, is highly organised and professional. It is an open secret that she runs the JBSF. I hope one day she gets to be chef de mission to a Games. The country would be in good hands.

NaTalia Stokes, my daughter, in-between law classes, has organised a simply outstanding social media programme, including plans to set up the JBSF in the Metaverse, merchandising deals, and co-branding deals. She just finished negotiating solo her first sponsorship deal with a major global brand started in Jamaica to be announced soon.

Then there is Mellissa Pryce, chargé d’affaires at the Jamaican Embassy in Beijing. Let me pause here. The JBSF and, by extension, Jamaica, is indebted to her for a multitude of reasons which I cannot get into here. The entire national foreign service should be very proud to have her in their ranks. Without telling tales out of school, let me just say that if you ever need a mountain moved, call her. Trust me on this. These are all strong black Jamaican women. It doesn’t make the sled go faster, but it’s important.

N Christian Stokes, OD, is chairman & CEO of Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or ncstokes@jbsf.co.