A Brilliant Challenge

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Bobsleigh is a winter Olympic sport in which two or four teammates steer, running fast down narrow, twisting, banked, and iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. Before, it was a sport for well-off classes because it costs a lot of money to make a sled alone. In short, it is a sport that requires cold weather and sufficient funds.

But in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, there was a surprise in the bobsleigh stadium. The Jamaican athletes showed up. Jamaica is a small island in the north of the Caribbean Sea, where it is very hot throughout the year due to the tropical marine climate. As the athletes from a snowless country, or a wasteland of bobsleigh, threw their hats into the ring, it became a hot topic of conversation.

The Jamaican athletes, who had trained in harsh environments, had to walk to the finish line as their sled fell sideways during the game. Although the Jamaican team finished last in the first participation, in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics in Norway it took 14th place and amazed the world.

They could not win the gold medal, but their effort, passion, and challenge made them beautiful enough.