Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Nelson Christian Stokes |
Born | Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica | 2 November 1963
Height | 1.89 m (6 ft 2+1⁄2 in) |
Weight | 90 kg (200 lb) [1] |
Sport | |
Country | ![]() |
Sport | ![]() |
Team | Jamaican Bobsleigh |
Achievements and titles | |
Olympic finals | ![]() |
Highest world ranking | 14th (1994) |
Nelson Christian "Chris" Stokes has been an active member of the Jamaican Bobsleigh Team since its inception in 1988. [2]
Stokes was a successful track and field athlete, and after his associate degree from Bronx Community College, he was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. [2] After finishing a bachelor's degree in finance (cum laude) at the U of I, he went on to earn an MBA from nearby Washington State University in Pullman and a masters in Banking (with honors) from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. [3]
While in graduate school at WSU, he tried out for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and ended up in the Winter Olympics at Calgary. [2]
His day job is as Vice President of Business Development at the Victoria Mutual Building Society. Stokes married Kayon Elizabeth Smith on 18 March 2006. [4]
Along with his brother Dudley Stokes, Chris competed in four separate winter Olympics. [5]
In addition to his Olympic competition, Chris Stokes has been president of the Jamaica Bobsleigh Federation since 1995. He wrote Cool Runnings and Beyond – The Story of the Jamaica Bobsleigh Team ( ISBN 1-58982-082-7) about his team's Olympic competition.
Pierre Fritz Lueders is a Canadian Olympic, world and World Cup champion bobsledder who competed from 1990 to 2010. He piloted both two-man and four-man bobsleigh, retiring after the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was named to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Cool Runnings is a 1993 American sports comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub from a screenplay by Lynn Siefert, Tommy Swerdlow, and Michael Goldberg, and a story by Siefert and Michael Ritchie. It is loosely based on the debut of the Jamaican national bobsleigh team at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and stars Leon, Doug E. Doug, Rawle D. Lewis, Malik Yoba and John Candy. In the film, former Olympian Irving Blitzer (Candy) coaches a novice four-man bobsleigh team from Jamaica, led by sprinter Derice Bannock (Leon).
Lascelles Brown is a Jamaican-born Canadian bobsledder who has competed for three countries since starting his career in 1999. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he is the first Jamaican-born athlete to win a Winter Olympic medal.
Wilfried Huber is an Italian luger and coach who competed from 1985 to 2010. Together with Kurt Brugger, he won the men's doubles event at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. He competed in both doubles and singles, but enjoyed his greatest success in doubles in partnership with Brugger. He made his debut in the Luge World Cup in 1986-87 season. He also took two medals at the World Junior Championships in Olang in 1988, a silver and a bronze. He competed in six Winter Olympics, in 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006: he was aiming to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics, however he was not selected by the Italian team's head coach Walter Plaikner, and retired at the end of the season.
Some countries hoped to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics but did not do so.
Trinidad and Tobago sent a delegation to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway from 12–27 February 1994. This was the nation's debut appearance at a Winter Olympic Games. The delegation consisted of two bobsledders, Gregory Sun and Curtis Harry. In the two-man competition, they finished in 37th place.
Jamaica competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They competed in one sport, Bobsledding, in both the two-man and four-man events and finished outside the medal places in both competitions. Athletes were recruited from the Jamaica Defence Force, which saw Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris, and Michael White become the first members of the team. Caswell Allen was the fourth man, but was injured prior to the start of the Olympics and was replaced by Chris Stokes, who was only in Canada to support his brother and new teammate Dudley.
Jamaica competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Its only representatives were the Jamaican bobsleigh team; they did not win a medal.
The Jamaica national bobsleigh team represents Jamaica in international bobsleighing competitions. The men's team debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games four-man bobsleigh in Calgary, Alberta, was received as underdogs in a cold weather sport represented by a nation with a tropical environment. Jamaica returned to the Winter Olympics in the two-man bobsleigh in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2014, and 2022; a women's team debuted in 2018.
Todd Dennys Hays is a former American bobsledder who competed from 1994 to 2006. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he won the silver medal in the four-man event at Salt Lake City in 2002, breaking a 46-year medal drought for the US national bobsleigh team.
Howard Banford Siler Jr. was an American bobsledder who competed from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.
Ivo Rüegg is a Swiss bobsledder who competed between 1996 and 2010. He won five medals at the FIBT World Championships with two golds, two silvers Two-man: 2007, Mixed team: 2009), and a bronze.
Paul Field is an English bobsledder who competed in the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics. In 1992 he came seventh in the Men's Four along with teammates Mark Tout, George Farrell and Lenox Paul. In 1994 he came joint tenth. He is also well known as the 1994 UK Gladiators men's champion, as well as the runner-up in the first International Gladiators competition behind America's Wesley Two Scoops Berry, albeit in controversial circumstances following a severe albeit unintentional tackle by American gladiator Hawk, during the Powerball event in the Grand Final. Because of his successful achievements and all-round good sportsmanship, he is still highly regarded amongst fans of the series, and is known as one of the greatest contenders in the history of Gladiators as a global franchise, especially during its mid '90s heyday.
John Alun Adolphus Herbert is an English former sportsperson, who represented Great Britain as both a triple jumper and a bobsledder. Competing in athletics, he won the gold medal for England in the triple jump at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. He represented Great Britain at the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1988 Summer Olympics. He competed in the four-man bobsleigh event at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
Steven Daniel Langton is an American bobsledder. He won silver medals in both the two-man and four-man events at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and gold in both the two-man and four-man events at the 2012 FIBT World Championships.
Dudley Clifford "Tal" Stokes is a Jamaican bobsledder and bobsled coach. He competed at the 1988, 1992, 1994 and the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Winston Alexander Watts is a member of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team. He has competed in four Olympics, most recently the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Ivo Ferriani is an Italian sports official and bobsledder. In September 2010, he was elected president of the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT), ending the 16-year presidency of Canada's Robert H. Storey. In 2016, Ferriani became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Alexander Kopacz is a Canadian bobsledder and the reigning Olympic co-champion in the two-man bobsleigh event. He competed in the two-man event at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Kopacz and pilot Justin Kripps tied with the German team of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis for the gold medal.
Jamaica competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
6. THE JAMAICA BOBSLEIGH AND SKELETON FEDERATION (JBSF) "Legacy" jamaicabobsled.com. Retrieved 23 May 2018