Times of the Islands Summer 2022

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The team would continue careening down the course with the sled on its side and their heads banging against the wall for another 18 seconds. In what seemed like a crash that would never end, a calm came over Tal. “There was nothing I could do except watch the ice go by as the sled slid toward the finish line. In those moments of relaxation, it occurred to me that what we were doing was not correct. That there’s a right way to do it, and this could not end here. I went through in my mind what was needed to become top class in bobsledding. We would need to raise the money, market the product, get decent equipment, get more on the ice, travel, coaching.” When the sled finally stopped, the battered team got out from under, still able to walk. They righted the sled and pushed it the rest of the way to the end. They did not carry the sled as portrayed in “Cool Runnings,” as that would have made no sense. Spectators still applauded them, but their debut in the four-man bobsled was over and recorded as a DNF (Did Not Finish). Tal blamed himself for not having enough experience driving the four man bobsled. He would never again race a bobsled unprepared. Making “Cool Runnings” After the Calgary Olympics, George contacted wellknown Hollywood director Michael Ritchie, who had made “Downhill Racer,” about doing a film featuring the Jamaican bobsled team. Intrigued, Ritchie bought the rights from George, William, and the four members on the team and wrote a script about the fanciful quest of the Jamaican bobsled team. He sold it to Disney for $200,000, but nothing came of it. In early 1991, the president of Columbia Pictures, Dawn Steel, was unceremoniously forced out of her job when Sony bought the company. Over the course of her career at Columbia and Paramount Studios, she had been a key player in several hit movies. Among them, were “When Sally Met Harry,” “Flashdance,” “Fatal Attraction,” and “Top Gun.” Getting dumped from Columbia was a hard blow for Dawn, but she got it together and formed her own production company. Thanks to good contacts, she landed a contract with Disney to see what movies could be made. While reviewing a stack of trash scripts Disney had put aside, she came across Ritchie’s script near the bottom. The story likely resonated because it reflected her own improbable rise from a struggling lower middle class family in New York to the first woman to head a major Hollywood studio. It had that kind of Rocky and Flashdance feel to it—outsiders with outlandish ambitions who overcome obstacles and make it to the big times. Dawn pitched the renamed script “Cool Runnings” to the senior Disney managers who gave her the nod to produce the movie, but on a tight budget. To learn more, Dawn met with Tal in Calgary where the Olympic dream had begun, asked what happened, and soaked up the story. Actor John Candy was offered the lead role as the coach and also saw the script’s potential. But the budget was not enough to cover his usual fee, given his star power. So John took a pay cut to get the part. This would be the last movie he would finish before he died in 1994. When Disney released “Cool Runnings” in 1993, Tal watched the premiere in Jamaica and didn’t like it. The film had portrayed the Jamaican bobsledders as hapless, comical figures. It completely missed how seriously Tal and his teammates took bobsledding and how hard they worked to get to the Olympics, as well as those who had helped them along the way. Indeed, the movie got almost everything wrong. Among the many wrongs was the scene where an East German bobsledder derides the Jamaicans at a bar and tells them to go back to their tourist island. That never happened. In fact, all the Olympic bobsledders welcomed the Jamaican team and applauded their commitment and efforts. But the movie needed a bad guy, and an East German from a country that had since disappeared made an easy target. The movie ended up grossing more than $154 million at the box office, the highest ever for a sports comedy. Tal and the others would get only a tiny share of the net profits, which did not come close to paying off the debts he had incurred in pursuit of the Olympics, a common plight among Olympians. “‘Cool Runnings’ cast a massive shadow over my life. There’s a very uncomfortable position of actually being alive to watch your legacy unfold. Most people die before their legacy is revealed, but I’ve had to live it.” The legacy The popularity of “Cool Runnings” thrust the Jamaican bobsled team to even more worldwide prominence. Ironically, given that much of the movie was fiction, it attracted more sponsors with deep pockets. With money came better coaching, more training time, and improved equipment to compete at the highest level. 38 www.timespub.tc
Tal’s Olympic career would span ten years and four Winter Olympics, including Albertville in 1992, Lillehammer in 1994, and Nagano in 1998. At each Olympics, the Jamaicans showed they could compete among the best. At Lillehammer, the team came in 14th place overall out of 30 teams, ahead of the United States, Russia, and France. On their fourth run, they clocked the 10th best time overall. Some teams even stopped being friendly, seeing them instead as serious rivals. After retiring from bobsled racing, Tal went into entrepreneurial ventures with George and William and worked to advance bobsledding in Jamaica. He and Denise had three children, who eventually discovered “Cool Runnings.” (They loved the movie.) Soon after COVID-19 hit and locked down the world for part of 2020, the children, now in their early 20s and isolating in the UK, came up with a creative idea. Why not live-stream SEE THE DIFFERENCE OPHTHALMOLOGY CLINIC Ophthalmologist Dr. Sebastian Guzman is now available for consultation in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Dr. Guzman and his team are a group of doctors representing three generations of ophthalmologists. They specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases and those linked to the throat, nose, and ears. At MD OJOS, we have our own equipment, with all the advantages of a private clinic. We offer a fast, complete, and comprehensive response to our patients. We are trained in the application of the latest technological advances for the correction of different visual dysfunctions. NOW OPEN IN REGENT VILLAGE CALL 809 880 2020 WWW.OJOS.COM.DO Food for Thought provides free daily breakfast to government school students. A donation of $300 will provide breakfast to one child for a whole school year. MAJOR LEO CAMPBELL Tal’s Olympic career would span TEN years and four Winter Olympics, including Lillehammer in 1994 (shown here). The team came in 14th place overall out of 30 teams. To donate or learn more please email info@foodforthoughttci.com or visit foodforthoughttci.com Food for Thought Foundation Inc. (NP #102) Times of the Islands Summer 2022 39
Page 1 and 2: TIMES OF THE SAMPLING THE SOUL OF T
Page 4 and 5: contents Departments 9 From the Edi
Page 6: from the editor MARTA MORTON—WWW.
Page 9 and 10: WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS TWICE . . .
Page 11: Building Your Vision, Delivering Ex
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Page 27 and 28: NEW YORK TIMES Ancient DNA is extra
Page 29 and 30: who are potential reproductive part
Page 31 and 32: feature Opposite page: Jamaican fou
Page 33 and 34: Kingston for rum and cokes. They bo
Page 35 and 36: Piloting a bobsled has much in comm
Page 37: Walkin May2017_Layout 1 5/28/17 5:4
Page 41: CHALK SOUND It’s the silence of t
Page 44 and 45: That thought would stay with me rig
Page 46: The intrepid voyagers prepare to fa
Page 49 and 50: The trekkers were met with support
Page 51: We are surprised to see we are not
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