When the
Winter Olympics start in Vancouver today, it won’t just be the elite athletes
all eyes will be on.
There are a
few competitors from the Caribbean in Canada who are not just there to make up
the numbers.
The Cayman
Islands have Dow Travers competing in the giant slalom. He won’t get on the
podium but will use the Games for invaluable experience for four years’ time
when at 26 he will be in his prime.
One
Caribbean athlete with an outside chance of grabbing a medal is Jamaica Ski
Team's Errol Kerr who will compete in the ski cross event.
Kerr views these Olympic Games as
not only a personal achievement; but an achievement for all of Jamaica.
A resident of Truckee, California,
Kerr, 23, is based at Lake Tahoe’s Alpine Meadows Ski Resort for ski training;
but is rooted in Jamaica. “I want to represent the land of my father,” Kerr
told a reporter at the Jamaica Gleaner last spring. “That’s the dream.”
Kerr’s father passed away ten years ago, which
gives his journey to the Olympic setting extraordinary representation of kindred
father-son connection.
“I believe everyone has to
appreciate where they came from. I feel like one day in his own way, he’ll say
to me, ‘I’m proud of you, son!’”