It started
in a most innocent way. Sports is not restricted to
a country because of its climate. Our Olympic experience
has been dominated by track and field athletics. This outstanding
athlete credits Jamaica with her first Olympic victory
ever. Here comes Usain Bolt! Storming through, he takes it
again! And we've always had an
objective to broaden the scope. We have one new element that is of great interest.
We have a women's team. Back on their bandwagon, they are very serious about
trying to be competitive. Well, they're real serious! Whatever you believe in, don't let no one, no one
change that focus. Nothing is impossible. We do bobsleigh, and
we are from a tropical island. The dream of Cool Runnings
has revitalised. (FAR FROM HOME) (6 UNLIKELY STORIES OF
OLYMPIC HOPE) (KINGSTON, JAMAICA) From the time Carrie could
have walked, it was evident that she would
be a runner. Carrie developed
beautifully as an athlete to the point where she became one of the top sprinters
in the world. Carifta Games, gold medallist. Doing sports, that's
what get me scholarships to go to college. That's a vehicle to get
out of poverty for me. And this is me, supposed to be me. The great! Every time I make plans
in my life, something always go wrong. I was unbeatable, but
I got hurt. Right hamstring tore, but I bounced back,
won Carifta... ..and then I got hurt at
the junior trials...again. I just start to accept that
I'm no longer a somebody, and that's when I say
to myself, that you have a
lot more left in you, you have a lot more to offer. So I asked, what next? And in that same moment,
I got a call. He said that there's
an opportunity for you to join the Jamaica bobsleigh
team. Carrie's an accomplished
sprinter, you know. World championship medallist,
World University Games. Got into a new sport. I want her to know that
you belong here just like the next person. She like challenges,
she said to me, "Mummy, I want to try it." So I asked the question, who will my pilot be? Her name is Jazmine. Jazmine Fenlator. Come on, here we go. I was born and raised
in Wayne, New Jersey, but I'm a dual citizen, so I am American and Jamaican. I started bobsleigh
in the fall of 2007. Team USA had asked me
to come try out and I really enjoyed
bobsleigh driving, so then I just said, OK, I'm gonna work towards
Sochi, then, and be a bobsled pilot. After the Sochi Winter
Olympics, I started to just think about, what type of legacy do
you want to leave? So I decided to transition
back home to Jamaica. Jazmine is a good woman, and she loves to help people. When I found out about Carrie, I knew I could perform
immediately. Always do the compression, come on, let's go. Jazmine decided to take the
time out to give me all the
instructions I need, and mentor me to where
I'm at now. We have a lot of,
lot of similarities, even though technically we
grew up completely different. She's somebody who's just
like me. A true-born Jamaican,
she's a true Jamaican. Surprise! Yeah. Slow, slow, slow, slow. OK. (PARK CITY, UTAH) So we just came off of two
races in Calgary, Canada, and then drove our equipment and the whole team down here to
Park City. This is more of a home track
for me. I learned bobsleigh in
Lake Placid and Park City. For the Olympic Games for
qualification, each circuit has eight races. But by January 14th, they will take the best
seven results, and that's what will qualify
you for the Olympic Games
in February. I don't have a year or two, because the Games is in, what, 70, 74 days, so I have to try to learn
everything, but yet still, I'm not
pressuring myself. What you're doing, you have to enjoy what
you are doing, and if I pressure myself, I will not enjoy it. They don't really
think that we're capable of doing four man,
four person I should say, four woman bobsleigh, and we're still overcoming
that in the sport. Women are doing the sport,
like it or not, and women are doing really,
really well in competing. We're prepping the
runners for race tomorrow. It's a different me on
the track on a race day. So tomorrow, race day one, our last two before Christmas, load sleds 11:50... ..2:05 start the women's race
with one, Jaz is 10th off tomorrow,
Carrie. I don't focus
on the athletic performance of Jamaica bobsleigh. I focus on the idea of
Jamaica bobsleigh. A vision and an idea
and a dream in the midst of very
unsupported circumstances... ..but the power of the
dream itself is so strong that you start to put the
things together one by one. We don't care if we're the first ones to do it, we look at it more like, OK, we dug up the road
for you, now you pave. (KINGSTON, JAMAICA) Life is really short
in general, and what do I want my
legacy to be when I'm gone? I don't need people to
worship me, I don't need a statue
built of me, but if there's just one person, a little girl, a little boy
who's like, "Oh, man, "I saw Jazmine
Fenlator-Victorian "at the Olympics,
and she changed countries, "and she just pushed pennies, "and did everything she
could to follow this mission, "and she showed me that
people like me can do that." That's to me, success. (ON JANUARY 14TH, JAZMINE
AND CARRIE RANKED (17TH IN THE INTERNATIONAL
BOBSLEIGH RANKINGS (QUALIFYING THEM FOR THE
WINTER OLYMPICS.) We're a small island, but we have big heart. They've done it,
they have secured their spot. Today's finish means
Jazmine Fenlator and Carrie Russell are
heading to PyeongChang. (PYEONGCHANG
SOUTH KOREA) An historical event, as they become the first
female bobsleigh team to qualify for Jamaica
in the winter games. That moment you get
to walk into the stadium, that's when it hits you. I don't need people
to worship me, I don't need a statue
built of me, but if there's just one
person, a little girl, a little boy, who's like,
"Oh, man, I saw "Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian
at the Olympics "and she changed
countries and she just "pushed pennies and did
everything she could "to follow this mission,
and she showed me "that people like me
can do that." That's, to me, success. Winning a gold medal is not necessarily our goal. Our goal is to break
the barrier, the stigma that we'll not
become nothing in this sport. That the most that can
happen is Cool Runnings, that's our goal,
to break that barrier. We don't care if we're
the first ones to do it, we look at it more like, "OK,
we dug up the road for you, "now you pave." It's the Olympics
at its very, very best, Fenlator says she
and Carrie Russell have dug up the road for
young girls to follow. I will always be
disappointed in the result, but I'm not disappointed
in our effort. At the end of the day,
it was, sure, 19th place which we're far better
than that but it's not necessarily
the number, it's no other team, I think,
would have survived, period, not at all. And we not
only survived, we thrived, and we showed all these
little girls and boys... ..in the Caribbean and
Jamaica and across the world that they're stronger than people are ever
gonna say to them, and that is far bigger
than 19th place for me. When I cross the line today, everything flashed
back to me, like, from 2016 September
until this day. What I did today it was
not for only me... ..it was for my dad. He always wanted me
to be an Olympian, probably not in this sport
but in track and field. And that said,
I want to thank you all for making me an Olympian, and I'm happy to be apart
of the Jamaica bobsled team. Cheers! Let's eat! (FAR FROM HOME) (6 UNLIKELY STORIES OF
OLYMPIC HOPE) (OLYMPIC CHANNEL) (OLYMPIC CHANNEL 2018 IOC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
