The Jamaican bobsled team — once immortalized in one of the best movies of the nineties and perhaps of all time, “Cool Runnings” — needs $80,000 to get to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
The two-man team qualified to compete in the February Olympics, but they have no money to get there. After learning that they have no money for travel, Lincoln Wheeler started an online campaign using the crowd-funding site Crowdtilt to raise money for the team.
“With no support from the Jamaica Olympic Association or private investors, [team captain Winston] Watts has been struggling to get the team ready,” according to the campaign description. “He’s even been using his own private savings to fly the team to the US for qualifiers.”
If enough money is raised, Watts would be the second-oldest bobsled driver in Olympics history at 46 and it would be the Jamaican bobsled team’s first trip to the Olympics in 12 years.
As of Monday, the online campaign has raised nearly $19,000 of the $80,000 needed to get to Sochi. There are eight more days of the campaign left so that the Jamaican team can feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme at this year’s Olympics.