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Pyeongchang Winter Olympics: Usain Bolt wouldn’t fancy bobsleigh, say Jamaica
Jamaica’s chef de mission Leo Campbell said Usain Bolt, who limped out of his final race at last year’s IAAF World Championships, wouldn’t last long in bobsleigh
Usain Bolt may have swept all before him in track and field -- but he probably couldn’t cut it in a bobsleigh, Jamaica said at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
The lanky superstar dominated sprinting for three straight Summer Olympics, claiming a ‘triple-triple’ before being stripped of 2008 relay gold when Nesta Carter failed a drugs test.
However, Jamaica’s chef de mission Leo Campbell said Bolt, who limped out of his final race at last year’s world championships, wouldn’t last long in bobsleigh.
“This is a painful sport. Right now, for someone as accomplished as Bolt, he’s quite comfortable, if you will,” said Campbell.
“It would be really nice to have Usain on the back of a bobsleigh, but we’re not so confident he can manage more than two races because it’s a really tough and long season. And he’s retired and wants to relax now,” he added.
Jamaica’s men’s bobsleigh team of 1988 were immortalised in the comedy film “Cool Runnings”, but the country is still making history in winter sports.
In Pyeongchang, a women’s bobsleigh team will become Jamaica’s first female Winter Olympians, while Anthony Watson will become the country’s inaugural skeleton competitor.
“If Usain comes into skeleton, I’m out of a job. That man will take every start record and race on the track. That’d be exciting,” Watson said.
“I grew up watching the ‘Cool Runnings’ movie,” he added.
“Just to be here with these people is an honour that you really can’t put into words. It was Jamaica that kind of put bobsleigh on the map and made it a very popular sport.”
