Bolt not built for bobsled

Usain Bolt may have swept all before him in track and field - but he probably couldn't cut it in a bobsled, Jamaica's chef de mission said at the Winter Olympics on the weekend.

The lanky superstar dominated sprinting for three straight Summer Olympics, claiming a 'triple-triple' before being stripped of 2008 relay gold when teammate Nesta Carter failed a drug test.

However, Leo Campbell said Bolt, who limped out of his final race at last year's world championships, wouldn't last long in bobsled.

"This is a painful sport. Right now, for someone as accomplished as Bolt, he's quite comfortable," said Campbell.

"It would be really nice to have Usain on the back of a bobsleigh, but we're not so confident he can manage more than two races because it's a really tough and long season. He's retired and wants to relax."

Jamaica's men's bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, was immortalized in the Hollywood film Cool Runnings, but the country is still making history in winter sports.

In Pyeongchang, a women's bobsled team will become Jamaica's first female Winter Olympians, while Anthony Watson will become the country's inaugural skeleton competitor.

"If Usain comes into skeleton, I'm out of a job. That man will take every start record and race on the track," Watson said.

"Just to be here with these people is an honor that you really can't put into words. It was Jamaica that kind of put bobsled on the map and made it a very popular sport."

AFP