Jamaican bobsled team thrilled to be in Sochi

SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- After a 12-year absence from the Olympics, the Jamaican bobsled team has made it back to the Games, only to find their plans in peril after much of their equipment was lost on the trip over.

But now, with their belongings recovered, the team that inspired Cool Runnings is ready to soak in the experience.

“I’m a 46-year-old guy sitting in a 25-year-old body,” said two-man team driver Winston Watts, who came out of retirement to compete in Sochi after competing in Salt Lake City in 2002. “There are no words to explain how I feel being back in the Olympics. It’s phenomenal, it’s unreal, it’s like a dream."

While Watts and his teammate, brakeman Marvin Dixon, probably won't contend for the medals, the JamBob team revels in their legacy as the sport's quirky but beloved interlopers.

“The people love us like crazy,” Watts said. “This movie, Cool Runnings, really opened the way for a lot of different nation’s athletes. Every time they see the Jamaica bobsled team, they always sharing with us: ‘Hey, I just saw the Cool Runnings movie.’ It’s something the rest of the world, they cannot stop talk about.”

But Watts said their underdog status doesn't mean they aren't in it to win it.

"I’m approaching the Olympics as an underdog,” he said. “I know I train very hard, I know I get out of retirement. I didn’t getting out of retirement just to be at the Olympics. I’m getting out of retirement because I want to achieve my goal. I’m going there to execute what I’m supposed to execute and the results, they will come.”

Mostly, though, they're just glad to be back at the Games, after failing to qualify for Turin in 2006 or Vancouver in 2010, and struggling to pay for training ahead of Sochi. And while no major sponsors materialized, online donors raised $178,000 to get JamBob to Russia.

Money problems, Watts said, won't hold them back.

"It's the heart we have," he said.

[McClatchy]