Chris Stokes, a founding member of Jamaica's first bobsled crew, recalls being mobbed by fans at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics the moment he put on the team jacket and left the Olympic Village to go into town.
"That's a rookie mistake which I made," he recalled 38 years later, the buzz still echoing as the current quartet compete at the Milan Cortina Games.
"Even now, yesterday, when I came back from the track with the team in the van and they just opened the door to let me out, people saw Jamaica bobsled and we were absolutely mobbed," Stokes told Reuters.
Stokes and his team were the inspiration for Disney's "Cool Runnings," a 1993 sports comedy about a Jamaican bobsled team's quest to qualify for the 1988 Winter Games despite never having seen snow. Now a cult classic, the film has turned eyes to Jamaica's bobsled teams at every Winter Olympics since.
Still, the four-man team seeks to top the sled's best finish of 14th at Lillehammer 1994.
"Until a team finishes higher than that at the Olympic Games, that team is the best Jamaican bobsled team ever," Stokes said. "I've said this to the guys."
The 2026 team has sleds competing in three of the four disciplines. Mica Moore finished 14th of 20 in women's monobob on Monday. Two-man team Shane Pitter and Junior Harris sit in 23rd of 26 ahead of Tuesday's final runs.
The four-man team will be piloted by Pitter and contains Harris, Tracey Tyquendo and Joel Fearon. Tyquendo competed at Tokyo 2020 as a sprinter. That quartet will hit the track on Feb. 21 and 22.
Though all are fresh faces on the Olympic scene, they were soon surrounded when they ventured into the chic Dolomites resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo. It's a testament to the longstanding impact that Stokes' team and "Cool Runnings" had on the sport, but Stokes made it clear that he wants to see new progress from his country.
"I've also said to them, 'Don't confuse yourselves. When you step out of the car and somebody's asking you for an autograph, it's because of something I and my teammates did," Stokes said. "That's nothing that you have done.
"My challenge to them is, by the end of these games, by the time you step on the track in 2030 in La Plagne (France) and in Salt Lake City in 2034, let people, fans, be crowding you because of something you did. That's my challenge to them."
Reuters contributed to this report.