In one of the more bizarre, yet heartwarming twists of the 2018 Winter Olympics, the Jamaican women’s bobsled team has a new sled courtesy of Red Stripe.
If you haven’t been following the story, the coach of the team abruptly quit on the eve of competition — and went ahead and took the bobsled with her. That left the team in a terrible fix, but prominent beer brand Red Stripe stepped in with an offer that the Jamaicans couldn’t refuse.
“We have been gifted a bobsled from Red Stripe,” Jamaican Bobsled and Skeleton Federation president Chris Stokes told the Jamaica Gleaner. “We have accepted their generosity and we are currently preparing the sled. The team is in competition mode and we are focused on one goal – coming to the start line prepared mentally and physically.
“We have had some challenges in Pyeongchang, but we stand united and thank our fans and colleagues for their unwavering support.”
On Twitter, Red Stripe confirmed the gift, eliciting a fantastic response from the Jamaicans.
— Jamaica Bobsled Team (@Jambobsled) February 16, 2018
“We just saw the entire story unfolding and as the ‘national beer of Jamaica’ we thought it very important to be involved in the conversation especially in the US where it’s very important for us to ground ourselves in that Jamaican authenticity and we wanted to show that we were truly supporting the brand at home and abroad,” Red Stripe senior marketing manager Andrew Anguin told the Gleaner.
It’s great that this story had a happy ending — and this time, the Jamaicans didn’t have to lean on crowdfunding to resolve their bobsled crisis. Hooray Beer indeed.
