As the Jamaican bobsled team looks to put down roots in the Tri-Lakes, supporters say this partnership would be a way to put Franklin County on the world stage.

The North Country Sports Council, a local sports promotion group, is brokering the deal as the partnership manager and would have the contract with the county. The sliding track is in Essex County but the hotel is in Franklin County.

In October, Nelson “Chris” Stokes, the president of the Jamaica Bobsleigh Federation and the brakeman for the team’s legendary 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics debut, told the Enterprise that he wants to make Lake Placid the “home” of Jamaican bobsled, saying it’s always been their second track.

This partnership was pitched to Franklin County legislators on Thursday, with NCSC asking for it to kick in $135,000 in county tourism dollars to pay for the rooms for the athletes. NCSC Executive Director Matt Dougherty said the hotel is offering these room suites at a “significant discount.”

Phil Hans, who directs the county’s Office of Economic Development and Tourism, told the legislature this would cover a minimum of 900 nights of room stays at the hotel.

The legislators decided to delay their decision, saying they wanted to confer with their Tourism Advisory Committee, as well as the village of Saranac Lake and town of Harrietstown first, to make sure they are supportive, before making a decision.

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Local government support

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The village board drafted a last-minute resolution voicing their support and passed it at their meeting on Monday, Jan. 8.

“The partnership will seek to create a beneficial relationship and create a significant impact on the overall occupancy of the region while also showcasing the commitment to the diversity and spirit of sportsmanship,” the resolution reads.

“We’ve got a lot of Olympic medalists who came from Saranac Lake and it’d be nice to see kids get exposure, spark interest and get the next generation rolling,” Saranac Lake Mayor Jimmy Williams said on Jan. 8.

He also pointed out that New York state has put more than $600 million into ORDA-managed winter sports venues over the past several years.

On Thursday, Jan. 11, the Harrietstown Town Council also voiced its support and Supervisor Jordanna Mallach planned to write a letter of support.

“I think there’s a lot of details that need to be ironed out,” Mallach said, but she supports the idea overall.

Councilmembers’ thoughts on the partnership is that it is a great concept, but they wished that they could learn more.

They had questions about if this would impact the town’s pool of bed tax money at all. They felt since nothing is being asked of them, they are fine sending a letter of support. But they wanted to clarify, they don’t have money to put toward this themselves.

The team’s training would begin very soon. The bobsled season has already started, and Dougherty said sliders are preparing for the Youth Olympic Games in South Korea and America’s Cup.

There would be cross-pollination between their branding, with the Jamaican bobsled team putting Franklin County logos on their sleds and uniforms, and the county being able to use the team’s logo in its marketing — pending approval of the Jamaican Bobsled Foundation.

NCSC would plan several public events, such as community appearances, autograph sessions and a potential athlete parade in Saranac Lake. Dougherty said there’s variation in how many team members would be here at one time — between five and 16.

Franklin County Legislator Andrea Dumas said she’d want others to be pitching in money toward this. It’s a large ask out of the county’s tourism dollars, she said, and she wants “backup support.” Hans said there’s not a good way to do that this year, because the agreement has a quick turnaround time. But he added that the plan is for this to be a long-term partnership, and that they could seek state tourism and commerce grants in the future.

Franklin County Legislator Lindy Ellis, who represents the Saranac Lake area, told the village board she feels the emphasis should not be on the rooms, but the marketing and community benefits. She said having an Olympic team training here inspire can young kids to take up athletics and she looks forward to seeing a diverse group of people who are truly great athletes.

Harrietstown Councilman Jeremy Evans called this an “experiment.” It’s essentially working on trust that the plan will work out right now.

The state Olympic Regional Development Authority manages Lake Placid’s Olympic winter sports venues. Dougherty said ORDA is also letting the team have free sledding time during their training.

Dougherty said the partnership came about the same way many things do in the winter sports world — at the track. Conversations and relationships played a large role in connecting NCSC and the Jamaican team, he said.

“There is a warmth and culture here that is very close to Jamaica,” Stokes said in October. “Sort of a laid back, welcome to our community and a welcome to our home kind of feel that is not everywhere in the United States. It’s not everywhere in the World, but that’s very much here. So we feel at home here, we have been greeted by nothing but kindness and graciousness here. We believe that we can give this area an added degree of international exposure.”

“They’re already kind of here,” Dougherty said.

The team is already in and out of the area for training as Lake Placid has one of only three Olympic-level bobsled tracks in North America.

Dougherty said Jamaica’s bobsledders are a fan favorite team, even for people who aren’t super knowledgeable about the sport.

“You’ve got dominant powers in bobsled. The U.S. is among them, Germany and all those others. But anyone around the world is going to know about the Jamaican bobsled team,” Dougherty said.

Harrietstown Councilman Johnny Williams said they’re probably more well known and marketable than even the U.S. team.

From their Olympic debut in 1988, the Jamaican bobsled team became widely known for bringing a tropical country into winter competition and, following a scary 80-mile-per-hour crash, their perseverance in carrying their sled to the finish line to the cheers of the world. The team trained in Lake Placid before the Olympics.

The story of the Jamaican bobsled team was fictionalized in the popular 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings,” with the events of the movie loosely based on what actually happened, according to Stokes.

After Stokes’ retirement from bobsledding in 1998, the country stopped regularly competing in the Winter Olympics — only competing three times between 2002 to 2018.

The 2022 Olympics was a return for Jamaica, which competed in three disciplines, and Stokes told the News in October that the Jamaican bobsleigh is “now going through a sort of renaissance.” He helped create a recruiting program in Jamaica called “Back to the Well,” which seeks to find prospective athletes in communities throughout Jamaica.

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Olympic sliding bid

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In December, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee submitted a bid to the International Olympic Committee for Lake Placid to host the sliding competitions for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milano-Cortina, Italy.

Two months earlier, Italian organizers had said they would not be able to luge, bobsled and skeleton events in 2026 because their track, which shut down 15 years ago, would be to costly to rebuild.

IOC officials started looking for an alternative outside Italy. But on the same day the bid was made, Italy’s sports minister said they are “more than confident” they’ll be able to host the sliding events in Italy. A final decision has yet to be made on where the sliding sports will be in 2026.