Trinidad bobsleigh pilot used Instagram to recruit for Olympics
Trinidad bobsleigh pilot used Instagram to recruit for Olympics
When bobsleigh pilot Axel Brown decided to switch from the Great Britain team to race for Trinidad and Tobago at the Winter Olympics, he needed to find a brakeman.
So Brown, who lives in the English town of Loughborough used Instagram to find one on the other side of the Atlantic.
"I slid into the DMs (direct messages)," Brown explained after ranking 25th of the 30 two-man teams in training Saturday.
"I knew that as a nation Trinidad and Tobago have a lot of speed, so I just started researching people."
Brown eventually came across Andre Marcano, a physical education teacher living in New York, who's "a fast runner with good bodyweight for bobsleigh, and said 'hey'."
He admits Marcano was sceptical so "I had to be a little bit persistent, but it worked out because we're at an Olympics."
Marcano only started training for his new sport last October.
In fact the first time he had ever been in a bobsleigh was when he arrived in Beijing for the Olympics.
"I can't see, but I have to put my trust in him (Brown)," he said.
He described the thrill of thundering over the ice without being able to look out of the bobsleigh as "like a step above roller-coasters -- I love that."
While Jamaica will get most of the limelight in Beijing because of the bobsleigh tradition forged by the "Cool Runnings" film, the Trinidad and Tobago pair are the first athletes from their nation to compete at the Winter Games in 20 years.
"We're the lesser known of the two Caribbean sleds. Jamaica, understandably, has all the attention, but we're here for the first time in a while," said Brown.
The two-man heats start Monday and the pair acknowledge they will not get near the medals podium.
"Our lofty goal, our gold medal as it were, would be to hit the top 20, to get a fourth run," said Brown as only the top-ranked 20 teams get to race the final heat.
(L.Chastain--LPdF)
