Trinidad and Tobago had one singular goal in bobsled at the Olympics. Do not finish last.
They were able to complete their goal on a technicality!
The Olympics came and went. Neither bobsled team from Trinidad and Tobago finished dead last.
Trinidad and Tobago had two bobsled teams at the Olympics.
Everybody knows about the bobsleigh team from Jamaica because of Cool Runnings but Trinidad and Tobago is not too dissimilar. The duel-island nation sits off of the coast of Venezuela in the Carribean.
As you could guess, it does not snow in Trinidad and Tobago. Temperatures hover between 75º and 88º Fahrenheit year-round. Cold fronts might dip into the 60s in January or February. Heatwaves can reach the upper 90s in July or August. January through May is pretty dry. June through December is humid.
Given the climate, Trinidad and Tobago is not a country that excels at winter sports. However, it sent a total of five athletes to the Winter Olympics in Italy. Five men and one women.
Most of the athletes chose to represent the country as a duel citizen in honor of their parents or their grandparents. They do not live there year-round.
The roster featured the first alpine skiers to ever compete at a Winter Olympics for Trinidad and Tobago and four total bobsledders for two different teams. They competed in the two-man and the four-man.
Due to the lack of snow and ice, there is not a track in the home country. The Trinidad and Tobago bobsled team practices outside of the country in places like the Whistler Sliding Centre, the Utah Olympic Park and the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun.
Operation don’t finish last was a success!
There are a number of logistical challenges that do not bode well for a bobsleigh team from Trinidad and Tobago. The bar for success is not high.
In fact, the bar could not be lower.
Trinidad and Tobago entered the Olympics with the goal of not finishing last. They called it ‘Operation Don’t Come In Last’ and it was an overwhelming win.
The two-man bobsled team finished 25th out of 26. That is not last! Mission accomplished.
The four-man bobsled team also did not finish because, well, it did not finish. A mechanical issue rendered them without steering. There was no way to navigate to the bottom of the track. They could not control the sled so they crashed.
Team Israel was disqualified from competition for lying. Trinidad and Tobago got to compete.
As a result, even though they are both listed as “DNF,” the latter had a better result than the former.
Trinidad and Tobago did not finish last because of a technicality! That is a win in my book.