--- title: Jamaican Bobsled Team Coach Quits Before Competition description: The coach of the Jamaican women's bobsled team resigned after getting demoted, and she might take the team's sled with her when she goes. canonical: https://time.com/5160243/jamaica-bobsled-coach/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-15T17:01:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:39.768Z og:title: Jamaica's Bobsled Team Faces One More Obstacle on Olympic Path og:description: One more obstacle in the Jamaican women's bobsled team's path to the Olympics og:url: https://time.com/5160243/jamaica-bobsled-coach/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ef10154301caf62/698927c24ee262da8f310e74/jamaica-bobsled-team.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3908 og:image:height: 2198 og:image:alt: Previews - Winter Olympics Day -1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jamaica's Bobsled Team Faces One More Obstacle on Olympic Path twitter:description: One more obstacle in the Jamaican women's bobsled team's path to the Olympics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ef10154301caf62/698927c24ee262da8f310e74/jamaica-bobsled-team.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jamaica's First Ever Women's Olympic Bobsled Team Faces Obstacle After Coach Quits > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a0d329ca-d078-42e1-8dd5-921105e91803&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 15, 2018 5:01 PM UTC  Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian of Jamaica in action during Bobsleigh practice ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Olympic Sliding Centre on February 8, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian of Jamaica in action during Bobsleigh practice ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Olympic Sliding Centre on February 8, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. Al Bello—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 15, 2018 5:01 PM UTC The Jamaican women’s bobsled team has been on a long journey to the [PyeongChang Winter Olympics](http://time.com/5142825/pyeongchang-olympics-opening-ceremony-america-korea/) — and that journey just got even more daunting after their coach [resigned](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story%5Ffbid=1601604836598102&id=171573089601291) on Wednesday. There also appears to be a disagreement about the sled, following her resignation. The dispute is between coach Sandra Kiriasis, a 2006 gold medalist from Germany, and the Jamaican Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. Kiriasis wrote that she was demoted from her role as driver coach. She added: “Without giving any reasons, I was told out of the blue that with immediate effect, I should work only as a track and performance analyst, would have to leave the Olympic village, would lose my accreditation as part of the Jamaican team and was not supposed to have any more contact with the athletes, etc,” [in a Facebook post.](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story%5Ffbid=1601604836598102&id=171573089601291) The JBSF has a different perspective. “The lady was a hugely destructive force on the team,” JBSF President Christian Stokes [told Reuters.](https://www.sbs.com.au/news/bobsleigh-not-so-cool-runnings-as-destructive-coach-quits-jamaica-team) Instead of accepting the downgrade — which Kiriasis, she elected to bow out of the team entirely. And since she maintains that she’s ultimately responsible for the sled, the BBC reports that she [wants payment](http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/43058774) for it on her way out. The Jamaican team is slated to compete in their first heats next week, with training getting under way over the weekend. This is the first time that the Jamaican women have fielded a team ever, following in the footsteps of the [iconic men’s team](http://time.com/8274/sochi-2014-winter-olympics-jamaica-bobsled-last/), who made their debut back in 1988 on the winter stage (and inspired the movie [_Cool Runnings_](http://time.com/7967/jamaican-bobsled-team-theme-song/)). But it remains to be seen if this year’s duo of Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and Carrie Russell will have the equipment they need to continue making history. The JBSF said [in a statement](http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/43058774) they were “disappointed” in her decision but insisted that her departure “will not impact JBSF or its athletes’ performance.” A team spokesperson [told the AFP](https://news.sky.com/story/winter-olympics-jamaican-womens-bobsleigh-dream-thrown-into-chaos-11251000?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter&%5F%5Ftwitter%5Fimpression=true) that other teams have offered assistance in filling their equipment gaps. Kiriasis, meanwhile, maintains that it’s on the powers that be to fix the problem. “The athletes have told me they don’t understand why this has happened as they have no problem with me and we have a good relationship,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5160243/jamaica-bobsled-coach/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5160243/jamaica-bobsled-coach/"},"headline":"Jamaica's First Ever Women's Olympic Bobsled Team Faces Obstacle After Coach Quits","datePublished":"2018-02-15T17:01:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:39.768Z","description":"The coach of the Jamaican women's bobsled team resigned after getting demoted, and she might take the team's sled with her when she goes.","url":"https://time.com/5160243/jamaica-bobsled-coach/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Winter Olympics","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ef10154301caf62/698927c24ee262da8f310e74/jamaica-bobsled-team.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ef10154301caf62/698927c24ee262da8f310e74/jamaica-bobsled-team.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Previews - Winter Olympics Day -1","caption":"Previews - Winter Olympics Day -1","creditText":"Al Bello—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5160243/jamaica-bobsled-coach/","name":"Jamaica's First Ever Women's Olympic Bobsled Team Faces Obstacle After Coach Quits"}}]}] ```