Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 28, 1994 TAG: 9402280111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: HUNDERFOSSEN, NORWAY LENGTH: Short
"The perception created by the movie will take a long time to uncreate, but this is a big step," driver Dudley Stokes said Sunday after his four-man bobsled team had finished 14th in the Winter Olympics.
The Jamaicans produced the 10th-fastest runs among the field of 34 in the third and fourth heats and finished one place ahead of Randy Will in USA I and eight places ahead of a sledding power, Italy I, as they graduated to what is considered bobsledding's elite, the top 15.
It has been a quick climb from their stumbling debut in the 1988 Olympics and distant finishes of 1992: 25th in two-man and 36th in four-man.
"People have had a lot of fun at our expense, but we take it in good spirits and use it as motivation," said Stokes, a helicopter pilot who has been with the team since the beginning. "It's a real good feeling to do as well as we did here."
Particularly, he said, to finish ahead of the United States.
"It means a lot," Stokes said. "I know the American view is still to take us as a joke, which I don't appreciate.
"By Nagano [Japan, site of the 1998 Winter Games] there is no reason we should not be a medal-contending team, but it's going to be as difficult to get from here to the top as it was to get from the back of the pack to here," he said.
by CNB