Olympics: Wayne's Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian makes history despite controversy

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Controversy is getting in the way of what should be an inspiring story – Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian of Wayne, bringing Jamaican women’s bobsledding to the Olympics.

The 32-year-old former U.S. Olympic bobsledder did so Tuesday night at Olympic Sliding Centre. She and pusher Carrie Russell completed the first-ever women’s bobsledding run for Jamaica, 30 years after the Jamaican men’s team did so.

They had some trouble in the first of two heats – the final two heats are Wednesday – with Fenlator-Victorian struggling to get her grip on the sled at the start.

But they finished 18th out of 20 racers with a time of 1:42.79, 1.53 seconds off the pace of leader Mariama Jamanka of Germany. Not bad for a team that just lost its coach and almost lost its sled. Sandra Kiriasis, the German coach of the Jamaican team, quit last week, and she threatened to take away the team’s sled.

That nearly stymied Fenlator-Victorian’s plans, until the beer company that makes Jamaican favorite Red Stripe donated money to buy the sled. Fenlator-Victorian switched her national affiliation from the United States to Jamaica after Sochi, because of her father’s heritage and a dream.

“It’s important to me that little girls and little boys see someone that looks like that, talks like them, has the same culture as them,” she said before competition began, “has crazy hair and wears it natural, has brown skin, included in different things in this world. When you grow up and you don’t see that, you feel like you can’t do it. And that is not right.”

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Fenlator-Victorian and Russell made several stops to talk to TV reporters after their run Tuesday, but when they got to the mixed zone with print reporters and were asked about the coach/sled situation, Fenlator-Victorian got upset.

“I’m not going to focus on any of those questions,” she said. “I’m here to race and that’s what I’m going to talk about.”

As she walked off hurriedly, Fenlator-Victorian was asked to describe her run.

“It was a great run,” she said. “We’re going to come back and keep fighting. That’s all I have to say. Sorry, guys.”