A fisherman is Jamaica's new bobsled pilot. He wants to make the team known beyond 'Cool Runnings'

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Monday would have been a fantastic day for fishing in Jamaica. The weather was just about perfect with bright sunshine, forecasters calling for temperatures in the low-to-mid 80s, somewhat calm breezes.

Under normal circumstances, Shane Pitter probably would have been on the water.

He was on frozen water instead at the Milan Cortina Games.

Jamaica's next chapter of bobsled history is being written, and at the forefront of the story is the 26-year-old Pitter — someone whose “real job” is being a fisherman, and someone who has gained quite a bit of notoriety for making videos about his fishing exploits. Along the way, he and Jamaica somehow discovered that he's got tons of promise as a bobsled pilot as well.

“We’ve got a lot of young athletes on the team and coming on the team," Pitter said. "It’s still a development stage. Even though we are young athletes, we are the best athletes Jamaica ever had in bobsled.”

These Olympics are the ninth with Jamaica competing in the bobsled events, a stretch that started — as probably most everyone on the planet knows — at Calgary in 1988 with the team that inspired the “Cool Runnings” movie. It still rings true now: think Jamaica bobsled, think “Cool Runnings.”

The Jamaicans don't mind. Perhaps more accurately, they understand.

“It's OK for them coming up to me and asking me about ‘Cool Runnings’ and the history and so forth,” brakeman Junior Harris said. "It is nice to interact with the fans, you know. And I’m going to give them every minute I have, when I have time, apart from doing the sport. I’m going to always be there to talk to them.”

Jamaica has never finished better than 14th in an Olympic bobsled race and that might not change in Cortina; Pitter and Harris were 23rd out of 26 sleds in the first two heats of Monday's two-man race, one that'll conclude on Tuesday. Mica Moore was 15th going into the final two heats of the women's monobob event on Monday night.

Olympic medals are still the dream — but are a long way off. And funding is a massive issue, as has always been the case: Moore, a one-time bobsledder for Britain, said she spent more than 40,000 pounds ($54,500 USD) to fund her Olympic season, simply because there is no other funding available.

“It’s a very expensive sport, and that’s me doing the season on a cheap budget," Moore said. "We’ve got the heart and we’ve got the drive, and as long as you’ve got that, you make things happen.”

She sees the potential in Pitter.

“All I do know about Shane is he just loves driving bobsleds," Moore said. "Like, if we have a day off, he’s like, ‘I just want to get back on the ice.’ I’m like, ‘OK, Shane, let’s just have a day. We need a day.’ He is invested in it. And as long as the program can keep supporting him and he’s going to do great.”

Pitter might be the one who can find a way to someday make a realistic push toward Jamaica bobsledding being celebrated for something other than the movie. He picked up 10 medals this season on the North American Cup circuit, with eight of them gold on what's basically become the team's de facto home track in Lake Placid, New York.

“He might be the best young pilot we've had,” Jamaica bobsled federation president Chris Stokes said earlier this year.

There is still a certain novelty to Jamaicans at the Winter Olympics. They remain a feel-good story, and rightly so. Snoop Dogg has spent some time with the team during the games, partially in his forward-facing role as an Olympic ambassador for NBC and Team USA, partially when the cameras weren't running. He offered support and encouragement, and the Jamaicans were blown away that he took the time to share a few extra words with them.

“Junior cooked for Snoop Dogg and Snoop loved his cooking,” Pitter said. "He ate the jerk chicken straight down to the bone.”

If Snoop and Pitter cross paths again anytime soon, fish might be on the menu. Pitter plans to resume his fishing career once the sliding season ends. He'll continue making the fishing videos, too, hoping the Olympic experience leads to a bigger following.

No, Pitter has never been ice fishing. But he does see some parallels between his job and his sport; Pitter enjoys spear fishing, which he says gives him a ton of upper-body strength that helps him have a stronger push at the start of the bobsled track.

And when the weather turns cool next fall, bobsled — and a run at the 2030 Olympics — will again be on his mind.

“For us, this is real life,” Pitter said. “The movie is somewhat fiction, but this is real, real life. We are the real team.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Mica Moore, flag bearer of Jamaica, leads her team in during the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Jamaica's Mica Moore starts for a women's monobob training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Jamaica's Shane Pitter, right, and Junior Harris start for a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Jamaica's Shane Pitter, front, and Junior Harris start for a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

MILAN (AP) — Jordan Cowan hoists his camera mount and glides across the Olympic rink as figure skating competitors warm up and, later, take their bows. Dressed in an ice-white tuxedo, he is as inconspicuous as possible.

The former U.S. competitive ice dancer is the first camera operator on figure skating ice in Olympic history, capturing intimate moments that the overhead or sideboard cameras cannot. While he isn’t on the ice during the routines, Cowan skates backwards after each program to record up close what is often a raw moment of pure joy or disappointment for broadcast globally to viewers at home and on big screens for the arena spectators.

“To be the first person out on the ice at the end of their performance is such a privilege, and I definitely want them to feel their feelings,″ Cowan said in an interview before the pairs short program on Sunday. “The ice is a sacred place for a skater.”

At no moment during these Games were the contrasting emotions starker and Cowan’s job more delicate than after American skater Ilia Malinin’s two free program skates.

The 21-year-old punched excitedly at Cowan’s camera after he aced his long program in the team competition, helping Team USA clinch the gold medal. After Malinin botched his final free in the singles competition, Cowan kept his distance as the skater crumbled into a grimace of abject disappointment.

“I’m there to tell the audience, ‘It’s going to be OK, he’s still here.’ You know, you finish a program, you’re still alive. There’ll be another day. To see Ilia’s emotion really is just part of his story,” Cowan said.

While on-ice cameras have long been part of speed skating and hockey, Cowan has helped create the niche for figure skating.

After retiring from competitive skating in 2011, he worked in ballroom dancing and was inspired by how television motivated amateurs to learn new dances. He wanted the same for skating and so in 2018 he started his company, On Ice Perspectives, since when he has since been creating viral video moments from all levels of figure skating across his social media platforms.

At the Milan Cortina Winter Games he is working for the Olympic Broadcasting Services, which provides footage to national broadcasting rights holders. He has filmed three U.S. Championships, the 2021 world exhibition gala, and ice shows internationally.

Cowan loves when skaters engage with him as they leave the ice. Many realize he has a microphone and send messages to loved ones. They regularly make heart signs with their hands.

“For that brief window at the end of the program, when you get to take in the audience by yourself, by having this silent camera slowly available to you, it gives a special moment that we have never been able to capture before,'' he said.

Cowan trains with Pilates and yoga to handle the camera while matching athletes’ speed. He has designed his own rig, starting with a light-weight steady camera mounted on an electronic stabilized gimbal, maintaining a level horizon no matter how much wind he catches. He’s added manual focus, cinema zoom and wireless transmission.

Besides the skate-on and skate-off moments during competition, he is also on the ice for the medals ceremonies and will be there for the closing gala when the top competitors perform their crowd-pleasing signature moves.

The gala is a unique challenge, as he will have to read their moves to both stay out of their way and capture the moment. It’s a skill that competitive skaters pick up from training alongside teammates and competitors.

His skating abilities and familiarity with the athletes and their programs make it work. And to blend into the icy background as much as possible, Cowan has been experimenting with both gray and white skating looks.

“I’ve trained myself to be able to follow skaters without knowing the choreography,” he said. “They know they don’t have to look out for me, and I’m going to do everything I can to stay out of their way because safety is my number one priority. The perfect compliment I get is when the skaters say they didn’t even realize I was out there.”

Jordan Cowan operates the steadicam before the pairs figure skating short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Jordan Cowan operates the steadicam before the pairs figure skating short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Jordan Cowan operates the steadicam before the pairs figure skating short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Jordan Cowan operates the steadicam before the pairs figure skating short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)