Winston Alexander Watts (born 8 December 1967) is a member of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team. He has competed in four Olympics, most recently the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Watts has five children - Neecia Watts, Remonia Watts, Romain Watts, Shauna Kaye Watts, and Winston Watts Jr.

Olympics

Watts first appearance at the Winter Olympics came during the 1994 Games held in Lillehammer, Norway. Competing in the four-man event alongside teammates Dudley Stokes, Nelson Stokes and Wayne Thomas, Watts finished in 14th position in a time of 3 minutes 29.96 seconds. At the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

held in

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

, Japan, the same Jamaican quartet finished in 21st position in the four-man event with a combined time of 2 minutes 43.76 seconds. For the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States, Watts switched to the two-man bobsled event. Competing alongside brakeman

Lascelles Brown Lascelles Brown (born October 12, 1974 in May Pen) is a Jamaican-born Canadian bobsledder who has competed for three countries since starting his career in 1999. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he is the first Jamaican-born athlete to win a ...

the Jamaican pair set a new Olympic push-start record of 4.78 seconds. Watts and Brown finished 28th out of the 37 competing teams in a time of 3 minutes 14.94 seconds. Watts retired from the sport as Jamaican teams failed to qualify for the 2006 Games in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, Italy, and the 2010 games in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada. During his retirement Watts moved to Evanston, Wyoming, United States to work in the oil fields. In 2010 he came out of retirement at the age of 43 with the aim of qualifying for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. For the 2013-2014 season Watts teamed up with compatriot Marvin Dixon and based himself in Utah to allow the pair to compete in the North American Cup. They obtained enough points to qualify for the 2014 Olympics by taking part in lower-tier events at tracks in

Park City, Utah Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake Cit ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburg ...

and Calgary. Funding for Watts and Dixon to compete in Sochi was provided by

Jamaica Olympic Association Jamaica Olympic Association (IOC code: JAM) is the National Olympic Committee representing Jamaica. It is also the body responsible for Jamaica's representation at the Olympic Games. History The Jamaica Olympic Association was founded in 1936 a ...

and Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee. To raise additional money for equipment the pair started an online funding appeal with users of the website

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...

donating over US$25000 via the cryptocurrency

Dogecoin Dogecoin ( or , Abbreviation: DOGE; sign: Ð) is a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a "joke", making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the ...

. Further money was raised via Crowtilt, a crowdfunding website. Watts and Dixon finished 29th out of the 30 competing teams in the two-man event in Sochi with a combined time of 2 minutes 55.40 seconds for their three runs. During their second run Watts suffered an issue with his visor that nearly resulted in the sled overturning.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Winston 1967 births Bobsledders at the 1994 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1998 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2002 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics Living people Olympic bobsledders for Jamaica Jamaican male bobsledders Sportspeople from Clarendon Parish, Jamaica People from Evanston, Wyoming

Olympics

See also

References