Jamaican bobsled takes odd turn
Red Stripe has saved Jamaica’s women’s bobsled team — but from whom?
Initial reports out of Pyeongchang had driver Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and brakewoman Carrie Russell needing a rescue from a vindictive coach, who quit her job days before competition and took the team’s sled with her. The act seemed unfathomably petty, and prompted the Kingston-based brewer to tweet at Jamaica’s bobsled federation, offering to buy a new sled.
But the coach, Sandra Kiriasis, says it didn’t happen that way.
In a note posted on her Facebook page, Kiriasis — a German who won bobsled silver in 2002 and gold in 2006 — said the federation demoted her this week without warning or consultation, stripped her of her accreditation and forced her to leave the Olympic village, prompting her to quit. She wrote that she spent last year working extensive contacts in the bobsled world to find sponsors for Jamaica’s duo, and rented the sled herself.
“I have supported the team far beyond the call of duty at all times,” she wrote. “And (I) certainly will not allow (myself) to be used as the puppet on a string by the federation which have also saved a lot of money due to my commitment and contacts.”
Friday morning, USA Today reported that the federation had received the sled, which it called a “gift” from Red Stripe. That same report points out, citing an email from Red Stripe’s senior marketing manager, that the brewer is “working with the federation to determine a price for the sled.”
Either way, Fenlator-Victorian and Russell are still slated to line up when women’s bobsled competition begins Tuesday.
NBC WRONG AND STRONG: Three months before the Games, a sharp-eared reporter from the New York Business Journal noticed how confusing the name “Pyeongchang” had sounded among NBC’s TV personalities. Some of the network’s broadcasters, in the city to preview the Games 100 days ahead of the opening ceremony, said “Pyeongchayng” while others pronounced it “Pyeongchung.”
A week in, NBC has settled on a single pronunciation. Everybody on air now calls the host city “Pyeongchayng” (rhymes with slang).
Korean speakers have let NBC know the network chose wrong. Earlier this week, the Asian-American Journalists association posted a video in response to numerous press requests for the correct pronunciation of “Pyeongchang.” It features AAJA Media Watch co-chair CeFaan Kim, who tells viewers the “a” in Pyeongchang is pronounced “ah.”
“Ah, like when you go see your doctor,” he says. “Pyeong-ch-ah-ng. Pyeong-chah-ng. Pyeong-ch-ah-ng.”
The video didn’t sway NBC, whose commentators continue to say “Pyeongchayng,” and the broadcaster could have countered by pointing out that Anglos often don’t pronounce city and country names the way native speakers do. Otherwise they’d say “Pah-ree” instead of “Perris” when discussing “Paris,” and would pronounce Mexico as “Meh-hee-co.”
Instead, the network is sticking with the explanation broadcasting and sports chairman Mark Lazarus gave the New York Business Journal in November about sticking with “Pyeongchayng.” “It’s cleaner.” Social media wasn’t impressed. “Essentially all of announcers completely butcher the pronunciation of “Pyeongchang,” wrote Twitter user @yesun_ “You had years to learn ONE city name & y’all can’t even attempt to say it right???”
HEAT OF THE MOMENT: How do Winter Olympians from warm-weather countries train? Together, apparently.
Popular shirtless Tongan cross-country skier Pita Taufatofua prepared in Austria, alongside Mexico’s German Madrazo and Chile’s Yonathan Fernandez.
Meanwhile, skeleton racers Akwasi Frimpong (Ghana) and Anthony Watson (Jamaica) have been training partners for two years. While they bonded over their shared outsider status, Frimpong told the New York Times that Olympians like him won’t remain anomalies for long.
“I want to break barriers, to show that people from warmer countries, Black people, can do this sport as well,” he said.”