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02/16/26 10:10:00
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02/16 10:08 CST A fisherman is Jamaica's new bobsled pilot. He wants to make
the team known beyond 'Cool Runnings'
A fisherman is Jamaica's new bobsled pilot. He wants to make the team known
beyond 'Cool Runnings'
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) --- Monday would have been a fantastic day for
fishing in Jamaica. The weather was just about perfect with bright sunshine,
forecasters calling for temperatures in the low-to-mid 80s, somewhat calm
breezes.
Under normal circumstances, Shane Pitter probably would have been on the water.
He was on frozen water instead at the Milan Cortina Games.
Jamaica's next chapter of bobsled history is being written, and at the
forefront of the story is the 26-year-old Pitter --- someone whose "real job"
is being a fisherman, and someone who has gained quite a bit of notoriety for
making videos about his fishing exploits. Along the way, he and Jamaica somehow
discovered that he's got tons of promise as a bobsled pilot as well.
"We've got a lot of young athletes on the team and coming on the team," Pitter
said. "It's still a development stage. Even though we are young athletes, we
are the best athletes Jamaica ever had in bobsled."
These Olympics are the ninth with Jamaica competing in the bobsled events, a
stretch that started --- as probably most everyone on the planet knows --- at
Calgary in 1988 with the team that inspired the "Cool Runnings" movie. It still
rings true now: think Jamaica bobsled, think "Cool Runnings."
The Jamaicans don't mind. Perhaps more accurately, they understand.
"It's OK for them coming up to me and asking me about ?Cool Runnings' and the
history and so forth," brakeman Junior Harris said. "It is nice to interact
with the fans, you know. And I'm going to give them every minute I have, when I
have time, apart from doing the sport. I'm going to always be there to talk to
them."
Jamaica has never finished better than 14th in an Olympic bobsled race and that
might not change in Cortina; Pitter and Harris were 23rd out of 26 sleds in the
first two heats of Monday's two-man race, one that'll conclude on Tuesday. Mica
Moore was 15th going into the final two heats of the women's monobob event on
Monday night.
Olympic medals are still the dream --- but are a long way off. And funding is a
massive issue, as has always been the case: Moore, a one-time bobsledder for
Britain, said she spent more than 40,000 pounds ($54,500 USD) to fund her
Olympic season, simply because there is no other funding available.
"It's a very expensive sport, and that's me doing the season on a cheap
budget," Moore said. "We've got the heart and we've got the drive, and as long
as you've got that, you make things happen."
She sees the potential in Pitter.
"All I do know about Shane is he just loves driving bobsleds," Moore said.
"Like, if we have a day off, he's like, ?I just want to get back on the ice.'
I'm like, ?OK, Shane, let's just have a day. We need a day.' He is invested in
it. And as long as the program can keep supporting him and he's going to do
great."
Pitter might be the one who can find a way to someday make a realistic push
toward Jamaica bobsledding being celebrated for something other than the movie.
He picked up 10 medals this season on the North American Cup circuit, with
eight of them gold on what's basically become the team's de facto home track in
Lake Placid, New York.
"He might be the best young pilot we've had," Jamaica bobsled federation
president Chris Stokes said earlier this year.
There is still a certain novelty to Jamaicans at the Winter Olympics. They
remain a feel-good story, and rightly so. Snoop Dogg has spent some time with
the team during the games, partially in his forward-facing role as an Olympic
ambassador for NBC and Team USA, partially when the cameras weren't running. He
offered support and encouragement, and the Jamaicans were blown away that he
took the time to share a few extra words with them.
"Junior cooked for Snoop Dogg and Snoop loved his cooking," Pitter said. "He
ate the jerk chicken straight down to the bone."
If Snoop and Pitter cross paths again anytime soon, fish might be on the menu.
Pitter plans to resume his fishing career once the sliding season ends. He'll
continue making the fishing videos, too, hoping the Olympic experience leads to
a bigger following.
No, Pitter has never been ice fishing. But he does see some parallels between
his job and his sport; Pitter enjoys spear fishing, which he says gives him a
ton of upper-body strength that helps him have a stronger push at the start of
the bobsled track.
And when the weather turns cool next fall, bobsled --- and a run at the 2030
Olympics --- will again be on his mind.
"For us, this is real life," Pitter said. "The movie is somewhat fiction, but
this is real, real life. We are the real team."
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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