By: Kirk Jackson
CaribWorldNews.com
Jamaica will have its first ski team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Its first member is Errol Kerr, whose passion for his sport could unlock a new chapter in Jamaican Olympic history. In 2010, he and soon-to-be second member Gregg Samuels will travel to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver to participate in the first Olympic competition of skier cross, a race in which four skiers simultaneously glide down an obstacle-laden-course.
Before that, the two-man team will participate in races in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan, Kerr said.
`Skiing is what I do,` Kerr told CWNN on Tuesday, a wistful tone in his voice. `When I’m on a pair of skis gliding on a slope there’s no other sensation like it.`
The country’s first Olympic-level ski team could put Jamaica on the map in a sport not normally associated with a tropical island.
But success will take effort from everyone involved, said Richard Salm, President of the Jamaican Ski Federation.
`They have to train hard, they have to be properly financed, they need sponsorship so they don’t have to worry where the money comes from,` said Salm, estimating that expenses will reach about $20,000 a month.
The Spyder and Atomic companies are donating equipment while a Jamaican beverage company is donating cash, Salm, however, disclosed.
The team has established an official headquarters at Alpine Meadows, a ski resort located near Lake Tahoe, near the Kerr homestead in Truckee, California. Therem Kerr trains in snow, as well as with dry land exercises designed to increase explosiveness and stability, said team coach Raul Guisado.
In one exercise, Kerr jumps laterally onto a rock as he catches a medicine ball.
Guisado explained that Kerr needs good body awareness in order to catch and throw the ball while jumping.
A former U.S. ski team coach, Guisado said he wouldn’t have signed on with the Jamaican team if he hadn’t seen Kerr’s potential.
`I think a lot of people would consider him a medal contender,` he said.
The son of an American mother and a Jamaican father, Kerr, this year finished fifth while competing in skier cross for the U.S. Ski Team at this year’s Winter X-Games.
He wants to ski for Jamaica because of his ties to the island. Those include his father – who died when he was 12 – and his older brother, who lives on the island.
He began skiing competitively when he was eleven, participating in so-called Alpine-style races in which competitors take separate turns and are scored on their times.
His involvement in motocross and bicycle motocross gave him some exposure to races involving simultaneous participants, he said.
`When someone’s right next to you, at least for me personally, it makes you drive that much harder and make the race more exciting,` he said.
Born of a British father and Jamaican mother and reared north of London, Samuels, 20, has been skiing professionally for about four years.
Both Kerr and Samuels concede that some may be skeptical about a ski team based in a country with no snow.
But Jamaica, whose bobsled team became the subject of the 1993 film `Cool Runnings,` isn’t the only country not known for good skiing conditions, Samuels said.
`It’s kind of the same thing coming from England,` he said. `People say you can’t ski in England, unless you go down to France.`
