U.S. Olympic bobsled driver Jazmine Fenlator plans to compete for Jamaica moving forward, according to TeamUSA.org.
“I’m prepared to not necessarily compete this year, but to build my team, accrue funding that we need for the future, get sleds, develop brakemen, maybe develop a second women’s team,” Fenlator, whose father is Jamaican, told TeamUSA.org, which reported the country switch has not yet gone through for her to be eligible to compete.
Fenlator, 30, finished 11th in her Olympic debut in Sochi with two-time Olympic track and field athlete Lolo Jones in her two-woman sled.
Last season, Fenlator was sixth at the World Championships and third in the World Cup standings, behind World champion Elana Meyers Taylor and Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries.
Jamaica has never sent a women’s bobsled team to the Olympics. It competed internationally last season for the first time since 2001.
Fenlator said she thinks she can convince two-time Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to become a push athlete after the Rio Olympics, according to TeamUSA.org. Track and field Olympians, like Jones, have been increasingly converting to bobsled.
“She’s talked about bobsled, but the Jamaicans haven’t had a team,” Fenlator said, according to the report. “After Rio, that would be great – or at least get her to try it.”
MORE BOBSLED: Jamaica (re)starts women’s bobsled team
Olympic women's bobsled pilot Jazmine Fenlator has left the US program and will likely slide for another nation. (My guess is Jamaica.)
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) October 8, 2015
