Winston Watts

Winston Watts

Watts at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Personal information
Born (1967-12-08) December 8, 1967[1]
May Pen, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight 236 lb (107 kg)
Sport
Country  Jamaica
Sport Bobsleigh

Winston Alexander Watts (born 8 December 1967) is a member of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team. He has been a participant at four Olympics, most recently the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.[2]

Olympics

Watts first appearance at the Winter Olympics came during the 1994 Games held in Lillehammer, Norway. Competing in the four-man event alongside teammates Dudley Stokes, Nelson Stokes and Wayne Thomas, Watts finished in 14th position in a time of 3 minutes 29.96 seconds.[3]

At the 1998 Winter Olympics held in Nagano, Japan, the same Jamaican quartet finished in 21st position in the four-man event with a combined time of 2 minutes 43.76 seconds.[4]

For the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, Watts switched to the two-man bobsled event. Competing alongside brakeman Lascelles Brown the Jamaican pair set a new Olympic push-start record of 4.78 seconds.[5] Watts and Brown finished 28th out of the 37 competing teams in a time of 3 minutes 14.94 seconds.[6]

Watts retired from the sport as Jamaican teams failed to qualify for the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, and the 2010 games in Vancouver, Canada. During his retirement Watts moved to Evanston, Wyoming, United States to work in the oil fields.[7] In 2010 he came out of retirement at the age of 43 with the aim of qualifying for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.[5]

For the 2013-2014 season Watts teamed up with compatriot Marvin Dixon and based himself in Utah to allow the pair to compete in the North American Cup.[5] They obtained enough points to qualify for the 2014 Olympics by taking part in lower-tier events at tracks in Park City, Utah, Lake Placid, New York and Calgary.[8]

Funding for Watts and Dixon to compete in Sochi was provided by Jamaica Olympic Association and Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee. To raise additional money for equipment the pair started an online funding appeal with users of the website Reddit donating over US$25000 via the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.[9][10][11] Further money was raised via Crowtilt, a crowdfunding website.[12]

Watts and Dixon finished 29th out of the 30 competing teams in the two-man event in Sochi with a combined time of 2 minutes 55.40 seconds for their three runs.[13] During their second run Watts suffered an issue with his visor that nearly resulted in the sled overturning.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Winston Watts Profile". Jamaican Bobsleigh Federation. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Winston Watts". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee. "1994 Winter Olympics Report, volume IV" (PDF). pp. 99–100. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "Bobsleigh at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games: Men's Four". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 "The Jamaican bobsleigh team is ‘The hottest thing on ice’". olympics.org. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  6. ↑ "Bobsleigh at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games: Men's Two". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "Move over Bolt – Jamaica’s cool runners are back". London Daily Telegraph. 15 January 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Sochi officials: Jamaica bobsled in". ESPN. 19 January 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "Olympics: Fans help fund Jamaica bobsleigh Olympic bid". BBC News. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  10. ↑ Hern, Alex (20 January 2014). "It's bobsleigh time: Jamaican team raises $25,000 in Dogecoin". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  11. ↑ D'Onfro, Jillian (20 January 2014). "Dogecoin Is Sending The Jamaican Bobsled Team To The Winter Olympics". Business Insider. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  12. ↑ Rovell, Darren (20 January 2014). "Fans help fund Jamaican bobsled". ESPN. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  13. ↑ "Bobsleigh at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games: Men's Two". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  14. ↑ Gibson, Owen (16 February 2014). "Jamaicans are fans' bobsleigh favourite as Cool Runnings effect takes hold". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
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