The Winter Olympics—in fact many would make the case about the Olympics as a whole but the Winter Olympics especially—are a manifestation of class and money and whiteness despite their insistence that they are about the world coming together to participate in friendly competition. The reality is that when your country doesn’t really get snow or ice naturally, the only people who thrive in winter sports are those with the means to artificially create the training grounds for athletes who can one day compete with the elite.
This is an immensely unfair obstacle for tropical countries, and on top of this, countries in warmer climates are disproportionately a part of what we call the developing world. So seeing a team like Jamaica compete in a bobsled event was no doubt seen as a triumph for the international sporting community even if its exceptional status points more to an endemic problem with a body hypocritically purporting to be putting on a truly inclusive worldwide contest.
Despite this, through the characters of Cool Runnings, we see a country making one of its first big, prominent appearances on the world stage, just as we see Derice discovering his skills as a leader, Sanka demonstrating his loyalty, Junior learning to assert himself and Yul being assured that his grand ambitions of international success is achievable is he remains patient and determined. It’s a nice parallel and with the conclusion that even small victories and progress can be found in momentary failures, a rather touching and hopeful message for any country or person who often feels small and unnoticed. Or whatever.
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