Red Stripe Comes To The Rescue, Buys Jamaican Bobsled Team A New Sled At The Olympics

Elizabeth Licata|

Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and Carrie Russell are in Pyeongchang, South Korea, to represent Jamaica in the women's bobsled event at the 2018 Winter Olympics. But just days before the competition, the women were left stranded with no bobsled, unsure if they would even be able to compete. It must have been a gutting experience to train hard enough to make it to the Olympics, and to be ready to be the first women's bobsled team from Jamaica to compete there, and then to be left without a sled. But then Red Stripe beer came to the team's rescue and bought them a new one.

According to the BBC, the coach of the Jamaican women's bobsled team — former Olympic gold medalist Sandra Kiriasis — quit after she said the Jamaica Bobsled Federation demoted her. And she said she'd be taking the sled with her when she left.

According to the Washington Post, the sled was on loan from one of Kiriasis' connections in Germany, and she said she was legally responsible for it. A team spokesperson said that because Kiriasis was acting as an agent of the Jamaica team when she leased the sled, it still belonged to the team. But while the ownership of the sled was under dispute, Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and Carrie Russell were still without a ride.

It's an extremely dramatic story! The first Jamaican bobsled team competed at the Olympics in 1988, and their story inspired the movie Cool Runnings. The men's team is not competing at the 2018 Olympics, but for the first time a women's bobsled team from Jamaica is. The team's missing sled is the kind of drama that belongs in a movie, especially when help arrived at the last minute from an unexpected source: a beer company on Twitter.

"No bobsled, no problem," the Red Stripe USA Twitter account said. "If you need a new ride @jambobsled, put it on @RedStripe's tab. DM us and we'll be in touch."

The Tweet ended with an emoji of a hand making an "OK" sign and a pair of beer mugs clinking, and at first nobody was sure if the offer was real. Was it a joke? Did the person behind Red Stripe's Twitter account even have the authority to promise an extremely expensive piece of sporting equipment? But the offer was real.

"This is not a joke. The games are an honor to compete in, and as the No. 1 beer in Jamaica, we want to help those athletes realize their dreams," Red Stripe senior marketing manager Andrew Anguin said in an interview with AdWeek.

According to Thrillist, the new sled cost around $52,000, and Red Stripe said it sent the money, and Russell and Fenlator-Victorian have their sled and can get back to training for the women's bobsled competition that will begin on Tuesday, February 20. For more dramatic tales, check out the most inspiring food stories of 2017.

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