This is the conclusion of a two-part Sporting Pro series on the life, professional career, and sporting exploits of Nelson Christian “Chris” Stokes.

THE story and legend of Jamaica’s history-making bobsleigh team started — like many great tales — modestly and innocently.

When it was made public that the country was to field a team at the Calgary Winter Games of 1988, the general reaction was one of mockery and disbelief.

Perhaps the only people who did not take the “impossible” mission for a joke were the athletes themselves — siblings Nelson “Chris” Stokes and Dudley “Tal” Stokes, plus Michael White and Devon Harris.

There were some, however, who fuelled the cause, for example the late Colonel Ken Barnes and sports administrator Mike Fennell. But credit for the idea unanimously goes to two American businessmen working in Jamaica — George Fitch and William Maloney.

Few others gave the dream a chance. The rest, as they say, is history.

By their exploits, the team of Jamaican dreamers inspired a seismic shift in global bobsleigh, the Olympic movement, Jamaican sport culture, ultimately creating a measuring rod by which Jamaicans could test themselves in pursuits that fall outside of traditional sporting endeavours.

The Calgary heroics silenced critics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), general naysayers, and winter sports powerhouse countries which resented the idea of Jamaica participating in the Games. They thought a small tropical island nation with no snow in its ecosystem had no place at the Winter Olympics.

“Lots of persons laughed and ridiculed us. The IOC itself was against the team. Other nations said we would only embarrass the sport and ourselves.

“It was tough, but we really believed we could be good at the sport. Of course, we failed miserably the first time out, but we kept working and getting better. We dealt with it how you must deal with things of this nature — you have to believe in yourself when others don’t believe in you. That is how you claim your own destiny,” said Nelson, the elder of the Stokes brothers.

And that destiny was carved in awe-inspiring fashion as four Jamaicans with heart, courage and determination played themselves in a real-life movie.

And as fate would have it, a Hollywood movie — Cool Runnings — was shot in their honour, and a few books written recreating the events from diverse angles of view.

Stokes himself penned an autobiography — Cool Runnings and Beyond — to give readers an authentic perspective from one of the very heroes of the story.

But it was the movie — starring John Candy, Doug E Doug and Leon — which carried the story of the Jamaicans to a broader, non-sporting global audience that turned them into overnight celebrities.

But did the movie capture the real-life story?

“The movie told the story and conveyed a sense of the challenges and what the team meant to people, but it was not a documentary. It did not tell step by step what happened. It was a story that conveyed the spirit and meaning of what we did,” Stokes told the Jamaica Observer.

The actors who played the real characters got a passing grade from the 58-year-old former banking executive.

“They all did very well, I think,” was Stokes’s terse reply.

The four-time Olympian admits that since the Calgary Games and the Hollywood flick, life has been a whirlwind in the public space.

“It’s been life-changing from a personal perspective and life-defining from a public perspective to have done something in your life that a blockbuster movie was made about. You don’t see that on too many resumes.

“I see it as more of a responsibility than a recognition because of the type of movie it was. It inspired and lifted persons — and I believe it’s important to honour that,” Stokes shared.

“Being the guy from Cool Runnings has opened numerous doors at the highest level of sport, business, and government worldwide. Once the door is opened you must show yourself as a person of substance — but that first opening is important,” he added.

The former Victoria Mutual Building Society executive said the popularity of team members means they get recognised wherever they travel, with people wanting photos and autographs.

“We get recognised all the time, and it’s of course particularly acute during the Olympic Games, no matter where it is,” Stokes noted.

Following 1988, the multitalented businessman has been back to the Olympics three times and explains the transformation of the sport over time.

“By 1994 we were a top 10 team in the world, which is amazing. We have gone on to have varying degrees of challenges, failures, and successes. Of course 1988 is incomparable, though, because we dared to try and created a legend — a premier Olympic brand. Everything starts from there,” Stokes reasoned.

As the sport builds out, the president of the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (JBSF) says finding athletes with the overall talent for bobsleigh in Jamaica is not an easy task.

“Finding the mental toughness and grit is difficult but finding the physical talent not so much, as we have routinely produced some of the best pushers in the world. The focus, skill, organisation, tenacity it takes to become a world-class pilot is more difficult to find. “We recruit from track clubs, gyms, high schools, athlete referrals — the full gamut. Recruiting was limited this last [cycle] because of COVID-19 restrictions, but we expect to be back out in communities recruiting before too long,” he said.

As boss of the JBSF, Stokes’s vision is to “consistently” get Jamaica into the top 10 and to break the ice in positioning the team for medal contention.

“We need to find a way to move from being good to being consistently top 10 and medal contenders. It’s very difficult in the sport. The winter Olympics and bobsleigh has been described as favouring rich nations and rich people, neither of which we are.

“Since we entered the sport all medallists save one, the UK, have been a country with at least one bobsleigh track.

“We have had some bad missteps with the coaching and leadership direction, but we are optimistic that we have the personnel and the methodology in place now to gear up the entire programme,” he opined.

Stokes says one of the things that has stymied the performance is the lack of proper development of sled pilots.

“The biggest challenge is to identify and develop persons as elite pilots. We will be focusing on this over the next two years under the guidance of some of the best driving coaches in the world,” he noted.

Stokes cites a broad-based approach to grow the sport in the short and medium term.

“Short term was to rescue the programme from the challenges of COVID-19 and coaching challenges and making it to Beijing. Medium term is to identify and develop a cadre of new, young pilots under the guidance of coaches and systems we know consistently product world-class pilots, specifically Canada and Germany.

“The plan is to qualify multiple teams for 2026, start in the top three, and finish in the top 10 for each event. This leads to a serious medal push with those same crews for the 2030 Games. It takes time to develop world-class pilots and we will invest that time in a sustained manner,” he shared.

At the recent Beijing Winter Games, Stokes believed the teams performed consistently when weighed againt the pre-championship indicators.

“All teams finished consistent with their qualification position. We would have liked to see teams exceed themselves but that didn’t happen. What we see though, particularly from Shanwayne Stephens on the third run of the four-man event, is someone who can drive at a high level. We will continue to develop Shanwayne as a cornerstone of the programme,” Stokes asserted.