Rasta Rockett: the true story of the Jamaican bobsleigh team that inspired the film
In 2026, at the Milan-Cortina Games, a Jamaican bobsleigh team will take to the track. 40 years after the true story of the foursome which became legendary, thanks to the Disney film. We tell you.
It was almost 40 years ago… Jamaica participated in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time.
It is 1988 in Calgary, Canada. Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris, Michael White and Chris Stokes take off in a bobsleigh before the amazed eyes of the whole world… The Jamaican adventure that inspired Rasta Rocket (1993) is true, but perhaps even more surprising than the one we see on screen.
We go back in time. In 1987, George Fitch, an American businessman, sets out on a crazy bet: to prove that Jamaican sprinters can compete on ice. His reasoning is simple: explosive speed + athlete mentality = bobsleigh potential!
Initially, he wanted to recruit disciplined soldiers, but the army refused: so he organized open selections, attracting around forty volunteers before forming the team around Dudley, Devon, Michael and Chris. These athletes, accustomed to tropical slopes, spend a few months undergoing icy, dangerous and intense training, learning to pilot bobsleds with little experience but extraordinary determination.
But the deadlines are short. Barely 5 months to prepare. And Jamaica arrives in Canada with a thorn in its side: it has been disqualified by the International Olympic Committee for late registration! Hard to take for all these young athletes who have worked hard. Pressure is mounting on the IOC and the Prince Albert of Monaco, who himself participated in the event, finally made the committee reverse its decision. The small Caribbean country will have every right to set off on the frozen track.
At the heart of these Calgary Winter Olympics, the yellow and green team immediately became a sensation. Everyone loves them even before the first descent. But sportingly, it will be a completely different mayonnaise. The country fields two crews, in two disciplines. Dudley Stokes and Michael White tried their hand at the two-man bobsleigh, and finished 30th out of 41, with a time of 58.04 seconds, a huge delay compared to the leaders.
As for the four-man bob, the story told Rasta Rocketit’s the berezina. During the third and penultimate run, the bob fell in a turn. Not because of a mechanical failure, as the film says, but because of a combination of pilot inexperience, excessive speed and too high a trajectory that unbalanced the sled, causing it to tip onto its left side. The team will finish the competition 26th out of 26, accumulating just over 3 minutes after three runs. But even before their crash, the Jamaicans were well behind the clock, with times of 58.04 s (24th in the 1st round) and 59.37 s (25th in the 2nd round). Suffice it to say that the Caribbean crew was never able to win any medal, as the film suggests.
Some authentic footage of the crash was used in the film, but it was heavily edited. The rest – exaggerated rivalries, mockery of neighbors and the famous shoulder-length bob to cross the line – is pure invention.
The writers followed the broad outlines of their story. But Pat Brown, Jamaica’s coach (the real one), confirmed after the release of Rasta Rocket that his team had not been victims of the mockery of the other athletes, as we can see on the screen. And that there had been no cheating story either. Fitch even estimated that “barely 1% of the film is true.
Yet the legend remains intact: four athletes from a snowless island defy gravity, clichés and predictions. They don’t win a medal, but their courage, their panache and their audacity make them sporting and pop icons, without a doubt. The film directed by John Turteltaub (who has since signed the Benjamin Gates) was a great success, bringing in $155 million worldwide and totaling 2.5 million admissions in France. And it should be noted that these four Jamaicans opened a path: 40 years later, Jamaica is still present in bobsleigh events, Olympic Games Milan-Cortina winter…
