ONE of the questions I get from press and bobsleigh aficionado alike is “How it is that Jamaica has managed to establish itself in a sustained manner at the highest level of international bobsleigh competition?”

The question surrounds, at its root, the idea that “there is no snow in Jamaica”. I will get back to that. There are many challenges to success in bobsleigh and many reasons for Jamaica’s success in bobsleigh, but the last time I was asked this question as I stood at the top of the bobsleigh run in Yanqing, I looked across to two cuddly dressed Jamaicans and said, “It’s because of people like those.”

The two Jamaicans were Dr Wayne Palmer and Audrey Heywood Brown. Audrey arrived late to the Olympic Village to provide physiotherapy, without time to acclimatise, and has been working non-stop. Every time I look at her, I ask myself “How is it that this woman has not collapsed yet?” Then there is Dr Palmer whose opportunity cost for being here away from his profession as orthopaedic surgeon must be staggering. Yet, he has been chef, head cook, waiter, and bottle washer. I can only look at people like these, in service to their country, with admiration.

There are many winter sports for which snow is not a requirement, ice is. Primary among these for present purposes is ice hockey, speed skating, and bobsleigh. Notable national hockey league teams in warmer climes include the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars, Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. I have heard of initiatives to build a rink in Jamaica. Without knowing the details, I would give the idea a thumbs up.

So why has Jamaica done so well in bobsleigh? It is primarily because bobsleigh is, at its core, a speed/strength and eye/hand coordination sport. Unlike luge, it is also a sport that attracts athletes from other disciplines and does not have to be practised from a tender age. All this favors our opportunity to have a pool of athletes from which to choose who may be successful in the sport. World Athletics noted in a recent article:

“It’s little surprise, though, that a sport like athletics — where the basic principles of movement are at its core — can open up opportunities for other sporting careers. It has also meant that nations with little history in winter sports are now competitive on the world stage. Jamaica, for example, will be fielding [bobsleigh] teams in Beijing, and several team members come from a sprint background.

“There remain significant hurdles in terms of costs, time on ice and access to equipment but the athlete pool is there. This becomes important in creating alternative paths for athletes to perform at an elite level.”

I had the pleasure of meeting Clara Hughes during an online event last week. Clara is a Canadian cyclist and speedskater who has the distinction of winning medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. In Atlanta in 1996 she won cycling bronze in both the road race and time trial. She also won four medals across three Olympic Winter Games from 2002 to 2010 in speedskating.

After speaking with Clara I wondered if David Weller would have been able to add a Winter Olympic medal in speedskating to his cycling bronze medal from the 1980 Summer Games in the 1,000m time trial. We can never look back to alternative pasts with certainty, but we can look forward with certain hope.

This gets me back to Wayne Palmer and ice. Dr Palmer is also the head of the Jamaica Cycling Federation. He needs a velodrome as part of his plan to get a Jamaican cyclist back on the Olympic podium. Some of his cyclists could also try speedskating. Hockey could use a rink to start a league and development programme and bobsleigh could use an iced surface to do its push training.

Here we do not have to be speaking of four different facilities, but all may instead be housed in a single, multipurpose facility that could do these and much more. The opportunities for domestic athletic development, entertainment and sport tourism seem to be worth studying. Government has a role but can’t do everything.

My sense is that there is a business opportunity here. It’s time to be much more daring in our facility development vision than another refurbishment of Independence Park.