Feature: Chasing Winter Olympic dreams for tropical country

YANQING, Beijing, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- When bobsledder Axel Brown and his brakeman Andre Marcano jumped into the two-man sled emblazoned with Trinidad and Tobago's flag on Monday, the duo became the country's first Winter Olympians in 20 years.

"We got a lot of love and support from social media. Many people are watching our competition and my phone was ringing and ringing again after the first run," Marcano told Xinhua.

About six months ago, the duo were strangers. At that time, Marcano was just an ordinary track and field athlete. He had dreams of being an Olympian, but they had so far been out of his reach.

When the 35-year-old sprinter saw Axel Brown's recruitment notice in Instagram, he decided to get in touch.

"I gave him some other suggestions of people who can be good, but he decided to let me try. At the beginning, I hesitated," said Marcano.

"I had to be persistent, because understandably he was a bit sceptical at first, but it worked out because we're here at an Olympics," Brown said.

Brown was an American football player, when he saw the bobsleigh event at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. "I saw the athletes during the bobsleigh and thought, that's really cool. I reckoned I could do that and then made the switch," said the 29-year-old pilot.

After deep consideration, Brown decided to move from Britain to Trinidad and Tobago last summer, in order to compete for his mother's homeland.

"I knew that, as a nation, Trinidad and Tobago have a lot of speed, so I just started researching people," Brown said. Trying to secure a berth in Beijing 2022, the duo began to practise in a country without ice or snow.

"No one around the world can train during the summer, because this sport only exists in the winter. In that sense, we're not at a huge disadvantage. We train for weightlifting and sprinting. And then when the winter comes, we translate that onto the ice," Brown told Xinhua.

Brown passed through the Olympic qualifiers by getting enough points in the American Cup, and the duo secured a Beijing 2022 ticket in December 2021.

Bobsleigh is an expensive sport. It cost the duo 10,900 U.S. dollars just to bring their bobsleds to China.

"We rely entirely on sponsors and personal savings. We're not a big nation with millions of pounds of government funding," Brown said.

"What we're doing means so much to so many people, because we're not just a face in the crowd. We're the first people here in 20 years. All of Trinidad's behind us," he added.

Before participating at Beijing 2022, Marcano had to take unpaid leave from his job as a physical education teacher in a high school.

"I had a send-off. Some of [my students] were like, 'OK, I'm not coming to school because you're not here, you're the best part of my day'."

When he visited China for the first time and fulfilled his dream of being a true Olympian, he had more emotional thoughts, despite finishing only 27th of 30 pairs after the first two runs.

"Chinese people are really helpful and friendly. and I enjoy the atmosphere here," said Marcano.

"This is the beginning. we're coming back next year and will keep coming back. So the next Olympics, you're going to see us," he added.