| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Shoppers slide into jammin' Jamaican Bobsled Store
By Jerry Spangler
Deseret News staff writer
PARK CITY — The reggae music wafting endlessly through the open doorway of the nondescript Jamaican Bobsled Store on historic Main Street has a Pied Piper effect.
Passersby spontaneously break into rhythmic swaying and start singing, "We be jammin'." Before they know it, they've been drawn into the store, opened their wallets and, a few T-shirts and windbreakers later, a financial contribution has been made to the Jamaican bobsled team.
Park City's "Roots" store with its trendy berets may be the hottest store on Main Street, but the coolest one in town might be the Jamaican Bobsled Store, set up just for the 2002 Winter Games to sell team merchandise, the proceeds all going to help the financially strapped team pay its bills.
"I just love the Jamaican bobsled team," gushed Shelly Groff of Nashville, Tenn., who made her own financial contribution to the team. "Everybody loves them."
And what's not to love about this icon of winter sports?
Team members stopped by for almost three hours in the store Thursday night, laughing with Games visitors, signing merchandise — you have to buy it first — and posing for pictures in and around a team sled.
People were lined up down the street to get in.
"It's all about raising money for the team," said Domenick Maccia, the team's business manager, who opened the store last week and will close it after the Games are over.
"These guys are world-class athletes, but they don't have the funding or sponsorships to train like world-class athletes."
The Jamaican team, popularized by the Disney movie "Cool Runnings," enjoys immense recognition wherever it goes. But popularity doesn't pay the bills, Maccia said.
And it's tough, Maccia said, to convince the island nation's best athletes to become bobsledders when they hear stories about how the team has had to borrow money just to eat.
Or how other bobsled teams have paid the freight to have the Jamaican sled shipped to competitions. Or how the athletes have slept six to a room with one bed.
It is up to Maccia to find a away to turn popularity into cash. The Park City store, he said, is the first step toward an online store that will sell Jamaican team merchandise and perhaps gear for the Virgin Islands team that is also competing at the Salt Lake City Games.
The Jamaicans hope the team's performances in races Saturday and Sunday will boost their fund-raising efforts. A medal performance and maybe the corporate sponsors will start knocking on their door.
"We are looking for help for the 2006 Games," said team photographer Scott Chernis, "and we need help now. We are looking to generate funds where this team can practice for years instead of months" leading up to the Olympic Games.
Consider the Jamaican team is already among the two or three fastest off the blocks. Imagine what they could do, Maccia said, with a little year-round practice on the ice.
"Ice time costs money," he said. "It costs money to ship sleds. If we want to contend (for a medal in 2006), we have to secure our financial future."
And if that means hawking $20 T-shirts and $50 windbreakers, so be it.
But it takes an awful lot of T-shirts to pay the bills.
The Jamaican team cannot help but look in envy at how other countries support their teams financially, or how corporations pay big dollars to have their logos on team sleds.
There is still plenty of corporate logo room on the Jamaican sled.
In the hearts of Americans visiting the team store, the Jamaicans won gold a long time ago. "My boys and I have been big fans since the inception of the team," said Steve Carlson of Steamboat Springs, Colo., hauling a shopping bag full of merchandise. "Huge fans."
Besides, said Park City's Christine Strachan, "I heard the money goes to the team, which is way cool. And the hats are really adorable."
E-MAIL: spang@desnews.com
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February 17, 2002
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