Nigerian Women Bobsledders Make Olympic History

The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea will start on February 9, and the sports junkie I am will definitely be tuned into the action from that date until they conclude on February 25.

Hopefully Kim Jong Fool Un will behave himself while the world's athletes are on the other side of the DMZ from North Korea  .

As has been proven in the United States, track athletes have been majorly successful in crossing over and reinvigorating the US bobsled program.   Vonetta Flowers earned a gold medal in the two woman bobsled competition in Salt Lake City in 2002,  and the 2014 Sochi bobsled team was composed of five Black women including Summer Olympic gold medalist Lauryn Williams and Lolo Jones 

Now in a shades of Cool Runnings Jamaican bobsled team story,  three US based Nigerian women track athletes have made history by being the first continental African team to qualify a sled in the Winter Olympics.

Driver and team captain Seun Adigun and brakewomen Akuoma Omeoga and Ngozi Onwumere are also the first Nigerians to ever qualify for the Winter Olympics, and did much of it on their own. 

Adigun competed as a sprinter for Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Games in London and got the idea to compete in the Winter Games while watching on television the success the 2014 USA women's bobsled team had in Sochi powered largely by US track athletes

She convinced fellow US based track athletes Omeoga and Onwumere to join her, and Adigun built a wooden sled for the trio to practice with they dubbed 'the Mayflower' until they could purchase a bobsled.   Adigun raised $75,000, including $50,000 from a single anonymous donor of a stated goal of $150,000/ 

That was enough to get attention and support from the Nigerian Olympic Committee, for a Nigerian Bobsled and Skeleton Federation to form and for the trio to get a chance to practice on ice. They have since that time obtained corporate sponsorships from Under Armour and Visa

To qualify, the trio had to drive their sled through five runs on three different bobsled tracks in Utah, and at Whistler and Calgary which they successfully completed in November by finishing fifth.

This is a huge milestone for sports in Nigeria," Adigun told ESPN. "Nothing makes me prouder than to know that I can play a small role in creating opportunities for winter sports to take place in Nigeria." 

"Our objective now is to be the best representation of Africa that the Winter Olympics has ever witnessed," said Adigun.

“I commend the personal dedication and commitment of these women,” Nigerian Bobsled and Skeleton Federation President Solomon Ogba told ESPN. “Their hard work was inspiring, and I hope Nigerians can appreciate what it took for them to achieve this — the work, the discipline and the personal sacrifices. They were amazing throughout this journey.” 

While continental African athletes have competed in the Winter Games, as of yet none has stood on a medal podium,

We'll see in a few weeks if this story has a happy ending and ends up at a multiplex near you.

Four African-American Women Make 2014 US Olympic Bobsled Team

The US men's and women's bobsled teams were named yesterday by the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation for the Sochi Games.  One of the interesting to note facts about the women's bobsled team is that it will have four African-American women on it. 

Lolo Jones did make it onto the women's team as one of the three push athletes along with fellow Olympic sprinter Lauryn Williams and Aja Evans. 

The US bobsled team drivers will be Jamie Greubel, Elana Meyers and sister Jazmine Fenlator.   

Jones and Williams by making the team also made a little sporting history by becoming the ninth and tenth Americans to make a Winter and Summer Olympics team.  Williams was a 100m silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games and won gold in the 4x100m relay at the 2012 London Games.   

Jones will be in search of the Olympic medal that keeps eluding her.  She was on her way to victory in the 100m hurdles at the 2008 Beijing when she clipped the last one and fell.   In London she finished fourth and after being asked to try out for bobsled team made it and medaled in her first World Cup race.
  
So hopefully the Olympic medal will finally happen for her in Sochi.  She and the other US women want to keep the tradition going of a US women's sled collecting a medal in every Olympiad since the women's Olympic bobsled competition started in 2002.

The four African-American bobsled women in Jones, Evans, Williams and Fenlator will be trying to join Vonetta Flowers as African-American winter Olympic bobsled medalists.

If she does so, Fenlator would be the first to do so as a bobsled driver.

So I'll definitely be tuned in when the women's bobsled competition starts February 18-19 to see how the Team USA women do in Sochi.  
 

The Jamaican Bobsledders Are Back

There another reason I'll be watching the Sochi Olympic Games in a few weeks. besides women's hockey and hoping Shani Davis threepeats in the 1000m speed skating .

For the first time since 2002, the Jamaican bobsled team will be in the house and attempting to win a medal.

Their two man squad of Winston Watts and Marvin Dixon qualified to compete in Sochi which was the easy part. 

The hard part is getting the $80,000 they need to get to Sochi.   They wanted to enter a four man sled but funding cutbacks caused them to drop that and focus on the two man competition.

Hopefully the Jamaican Olympic Committee combined with some corporate sponsors will help them get the funding they need and be in Sochi in time to compete on February 16-17.

Because the world definitely wants to see Cool Runnings The Sequel, and Watts and Dixon deserve a chance to not only be there for the opening ceremonies in Sochi, but have the opportunity to at least compete for their country at the Winter Games.

Lolo's One Step Closer To Going To Sochi

I love Lolo Jones and still feel for her when I see that video of her hitting that second to last hurdle on her way to what looked like a legacy cementing gold medal performance in the 100m hurdles final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and failing to place. 

She gracefully handled that tremendous disappointment and busted her butt to make the Olympic team again in 2012 only to finish in fourth place in London behind her silver and bronze medal winning teammates Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells in the 100m women's hurdle final won in Olympic record time by Australia's Sally Pearson.

At age 31 Lolo Jones is still chasing Olympic gold, although at a different time of year and in a different event.  This is the second year that Jones has competed in bobsled as a push athlete, and she and fellow sprinter Lauryn Williams were recently named to the nine member USA Women's Bobsled team for the upcoming FIBT World Cup event later today in Calgary.  

She has also added 30 pounds to her previously 130 pound frame in order to help her in her quest to make the USA Bobsled team bound for Sochi. 

Jones and Williams will be joining Emily Azevedo, Katie Eberling, Aja Evans and Kristi Koplin as sled pushers, with Elana Meyers, Jamie Greubel and Jazmine Fenlator serving as drivers.

Depending on the results in this World Cup event the USA could qualify as many as three two woman sleds for Sochi.  The team will also be named in mid to late January, so this is an opportunity for Jones to make one last impression on the powers that be in the US Bobsled and Skeleton Federation before that selection happens. 

In case you're wondering about the prospects for Jones should she make the team of medaling in Sochi, there is a precedent for a track athlete crossing over into the sport and experiencing success in it.

After several failed attempts to make the US Olympic track team Vonetta Flowers at the urging of her husband tried and embraced the sport.  In the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games she and her driver Jill Bakken won gold in the inaugural two women bobsled event.  With the win Flowers made history by becoming the first African descended athlete ever to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.  Two years later Flowers would earn a bronze medal at the FIBT World Championships at Konigsee, Germany.

During Jones' rookie season on the FIBT World Cup circuit she did medal in three races.  So she does have an excellent chance at making this team, attempting to match Vonetta Flowers and getting that Olympc gold medal that has eluded her so far in the Summer Games.