Question: Is it true that the Jamaica bobsled team performed poorly at first during training as shown in in the film?
Question: If only three of the guys are sprinters, and Sanka Coffee is not, how can Sanka keep up with the others when they're doing their push-starts?
Chosen answer: They are sprinters and so can run very fast on dry land whilst not pushing a huge metal bobsled. They can pushstart faster than most teams but nowhere near sprinter speeds. Sanka is used to pushstarts like this from his pushcart races and so is able to keep up over the short starts. Also, he is routinely shown struggling to keep up with the other three in all around training.
Question: Does anyone know a website that tells the full, true story of the Jamaican bobsled team? I liked to get a look at all the differences between the film and what actually happened. I tried to search for it on Google, but all I am coming up with is things about the movie, not the actual event.
Answer: The events depicted in Cool Runnings of the improbable Jamaican bobsled team were actually quite accurate, according to this page http://www.factmonster.com/spot/02olcrunnings.html.
Question: Was there really someone named Irv Britzer in the 1972 games that cheated and cost the USA the gold medal? If not, what really happened in 1972? Because I am thinking that in the scene where he goes to the Alliance and says 'go ahead, disqualify me, banish me, do whatever you want, but do it to me', it seems that if they had, they would have still been disqualified because they would have been without a coach.
Answer: Irv Blitzer was a character created for the film. His real-life counterpart is Howard Siler, who was a successful U.S. Olympic bobsledder and coach and was the man who coached the Jamaican team. However, unlike Blitzer, Howard Siler did not cheat and leave the sport in disgrace. He coached the Jamaican team because he found them to be dedicated athletes and was annoyed by their representation in the film as happy-go-lucky goofballs. None of the characters in the film existed in real life, the film is loosely "inspired by" the story of the first Jamaican bobsled team.
Question: In the true story of "Cool Runnings" did they really carry their sled to the finish line?
Answer: The video footage of the crash was all real, but the racers did not carry the sled to the finish line, they walked in front of it as the Olympics crew/ team members pushed it behind them.
Question: How accurate is this film to portraying what actually happened? Such as the three sprinters tripping, Dorice tracking down an ex-bobsled cheat and then entering the Olympics with three months practice time, them chasing the sled on their first push start, them beating the Swiss's start time, etc.
Answer: Only part of this is accurate. The sprinters did in fact trip and almost fall in the Olympics. There was one member of the team who did join just a few months ahead of the games but not a former cheater. The basic idea of the bobsled is to get off a huge start, then get in smoothly. The only person who needs a tonne of experience is the driver or else the sled can flip over on the track, which incidentally it did both in the film and at the Olympics. Also, they did lose the sled on startup once and almost did several other times too. Finally they did beat the Swiss start time, however, Jamaicans tend to be strong sprinters, which is just one element of the race.
Question: When the Jamaican bobsled team returned to the next Olympics, did they have the same members as before?
Chosen answer: Yes.
Question: Is it true that the man who played the coach died when filming his next film?
Chosen answer: John Candy, who played the coach, did indeed die during the filming of "Wagons East!", which was released in 1994. His final ever film - for which he shot his scenes prior to signing up for "Wagons East!" - was called "Canadian Bacon", released in 1995.
Question: Could someone as overweight and unhealthy as John Candy's character really have lived in Jamaica? I would have thought the extreme hot weather conditions would have been rather dangerous for someone in his shape.
Chosen answer: It may not be the wisest place to live, but that doesn't mean that he's physiologically incapable of living there, even relatively long term. It's pretty dangerous being that size anywhere in the world, as Candy's sadly premature demise illustrates; living somewhere as warm as the Caribbean probably wouldn't make the situation significantly worse than it already is.
Answer: The real Jamaican team performed poorly throughout the Olympics and did not finish.
Greg Dwyer