When Jamaica’s national bobsled team debuted in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, the four-man team captured the hearts and imaginations of fans across the globe after making the games despite the lack of snow.
This truly underdog story inspired the 1993 film Cool Runnings and several subsequent Jamaican bobsled teams in the 38 years since.
Fast forward to 2017, and the start of a new underdog story was beginning to take shape.
When in Rome
Shortly after arriving in Northern Ontario in 2017 for a new executive role with the Northwest Local Integration Health Network, a colleague introduced Dionne Sinclair, now CAMH VP of Clinical Operations and Chief Nurse Executive, to curling for the first time.
“I have the attitude that when in Rome, do as the Romans do,” Dionne explains. “I figured curling couldn’t be that bad because you are not on skates, and it looked like fun.”
Rome, in this case, was Thunder Bay, Ontario. And the Coliseum? The 46 x 5 metre ice sheet on which Dionne won her first four-team tournament.
Her interest in curling took off from there.
“So, I didn't think I would like anything to do with the ice because I grew up in Canada, and I tried ice skating, but the blades were too thin. I would stand up and fall, and I didn't like it. However, with curling you get to walk on the ice, especially when you have your grippers on,” she shared.
“I realized, I could do this, and I can do it well into my years.”
Soon after, Dionne met another Jamaican-Canadian curler, Christiene Hall-Teravainen, who also lived and competed in the Thunder Bay area.
“When I met Christiene, it was funny because I'm the one who said, ‘Listen, you're Jamaican, I'm Jamaican, they got a bobsled team. Why don't we start a Jamaican curling team now?’” Dionne joked.
Curling Jamaica Takes Shape
Though Dionne and Christiene initially viewed the creation of a Jamaican curling team as improbable, Markham-resident Ben Kong struck a more optimistic tone.
Ben came to Canada as an infant from Jamaica and fell in love with the sport in his thirties. That passion drew him to seek out other Jamaican curlers to form a national team.
“I tried to look for other Jamaican curlers,” he told the Star in 2022. “Even in the Greater Toronto Area, they were quite scarce. And the few that did (curl) didn’t take me seriously. They’re like, ‘Right, you’re going to put a Jamaican curling team together? Uh-huh.’”
By late 2020, Ben won over Christiene and used his own money to incorporate the Jamaican Curling Federation.
Once a national team had crystallized, Dionne knew she had to get involved.
“I realized that I can be really good at this. I wanted to be an Olympian in high school when I was a track star. Those days are over, and all of a sudden, having the team form, I can be on an Olympic team?! What?! At my age?! I'm there! Like, I'm so there!”
In Pursuit of an Olympic Dream
Since its inception, Curling Jamaica has undergone a meteoric rise.
In 2022, the World Curling Federation officially recognized Jamaica as a member association.
The next year, Curling Jamaica’s women’s team won its first silver medal in the B-Division playoffs of the Pan Continental Curling Championships in Kelowna, British Columbia, losing to China.
In 2024, they repeated the feat at the same competition in Lacombe, Alberta, this time losing to Australia.
Since then, the team has officially joined the Jamaican Olympic Association, secured its first major sponsor, Sagicor – a prominent digital-first bank in the Caribbean - and set a lofty target of achieving Olympic gold by 2040.
While they have a long way to go in rising from their current C-Division to the A-Division, which would put them in the Olympic conversation, Dionne is optimistic that they’re on track to meet and even surpass their targets.
“I think we'll get to the Olympics sooner because we've been recruiting some new members,” Dionne shares.
She then draws attention to the rising popularity of curling within the Jamaican-Canadian community.
“I don't know if you know this, but there's actually a show called Cool Sweeping. And so, suddenly, more people are interested, and especially Jamaicans and people of Jamaican heritage that curl who are coming out of the woodworks.”
Cool Sweeping – completed unaffiliated with Curling Jamaica – is a new comedy series being produced in Winnipeg, Manitoba, about a group of Jamaican-Canadians who grew up in a curling-mad community and decided to form their own team. Sound familiar?
Dionne plans to reach out to the production team to share Curling Jamaica’s story and encourage the performers to try the sport for real.
“They didn't know we existed, and we didn't know they existed either. And it's like, ‘Hey, you guys have been now cool sweeping for a while. I know you're a bunch of actors, but because you have Jamaican roots, you should come even do recreational or Curling Jamaica.’”
Work and Life
When she’s not setting an elite guard as the Lead for her team, Dionne serves as the Membership Director for Curling Jamaica, seeking to grow the game both in Canada and back home in Jamaica.
This summer, she’s organizing a summer camp with Christiene to teach kids in Jamaica about the sport she’s come to love.
Recently, she and Curling Jamaica hosted its annual Jamaica Cup in Hamilton, ON, and were thrilled to have Canadian curling legends Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing drop by to compete. Dionne stepped in to provide commentary for the event for the first time.
She credits her role with Curling Jamaica with giving her purpose outside of work.
“Being in a leadership role here at CAMH, you need outside activities. You can't have work being your life,” she stresses. “So I'm telling you, work-life balance, there's no such thing, but you can have work and a life and something else.”
And when Curling Jamaica makes it to the Olympics, Dionne plans to walk out with pride in what she describes as the nicest-looking uniforms.
“We are bright and colourful. And when Jamaica walks out, people notice us. In our Jamaican uniform, you're going to see us from a mile away, and we're going to represent by being there,” she emphatically shares.
“But when we do reach the podium, even for a bronze, the whole country will be celebrating.”
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