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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. When I'm on a pair of skis gliding on a slope there's no other sensation like it." Kerr stated, with a wistful tone in his voice.
The country's first Olympic-level ski team could put Jamaica on the map in a sport not normally associated with a Caribbean Island.
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 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 in Jamaica.
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.
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.
