Every day is magic for Panamanian bobsled team

Don Winner posted an article from the Utah Park Record newspaper on his Panama Guide  that covered the first Panamanian Bobsled Team known as “The Spirit of Panama.”  When I saw that my friend Chris Zollinger a lead lawyer from Mossack Fonseca was involved, I dashed off an email of congratulations and he replied with such enthusiasm that I could feel the energy the team has for this event.  They move on to Calgary for the American Cup Races # 3 and 4 this Friday and Saturday before heading home to Panama.   It makes me proud to be  Panamanian. I feel privalged just knowing what they have done with the hopes that one day there is Gold in their future!!

The parallels are irrefutable. So much so that Eduardo Fonseca can’t help but laugh when he thinks of how this once-faraway dream became a dazzling reality. “It’s inevitable,” said the 25-year-old private pilot from Panama. “You have to compare it to ‘Cool Runnings'” (The 1993 film loosely based on the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team that participated in the Olympic Winter Games in Calgary). Fonseca is one of five members of the Panamanian Bobsled Team, also known as “The Spirit of Panama,” which competed in the two-man event at this week’s America’s Cup circuit at the Utah Olympic Park. “Step by step, you sort of start believing in the dream,” he said, looking back on the evolution of the program. “Every day is magic.”

That dream was laid out by team founder Chris Zollinger, the other pilot on the Panamanian squad. Zollinger, a native of Switzerland, moved to Panama 16 years ago. Like Fonseca, he is a private pilot and is now a citizen of the Central American nation. The Swiss-born team captain came across the sport during an impromptu passenger ride on a bobsled “taxi” in St. Moritz. “I just felt what was going on,” said Zollinger, reminiscing about his introductory slide. He started poking and prodding workers at the track, asking how he could become more involved with the sport.

They gave Zollinger a name, and told him if he was serious, this individual might give him a shot. The name was Hans Hiltebrand, a two-time world champion who competed in three Olympic Winter Games. Zollinger sat at his computer and sent Hiltebrand an e-mail entitled, “A dream, a crazy idea.” The two eventually met in Zurich, Switzerland, where Zollinger had 100 questions for Hiltebrand written on a piece of paper. Hiltebrand agreed to help, and laid some groundwork for how a Panamanian bobsled team could come to fruition and advised him on what specific type of athlete would be needed. Zollinger went to the Panamanian Track & Field Federation in search of some athletes.

“The first name that popped up was my own,” said Jonathan Romero, a lifelong track & field long-jump star who was, at one point, ranked No. 2 in South America. “We had a meeting and as soon as Hans (Hiltebrand) saw me, he said, ‘This is the one.'” At first, Romero didn’t understand the concept of bobsled. He grew up playing basketball and participating in track & field and the thought of pushing a weighty sled down a tube of ice was just strange. Hiltebrand mentioned “Cool Runnings,” but Romero shook his head. He had never seen or even heard of the film.

After much discussion, Hiltebrand convinced Romero to give it a shot. The pair traveled to Igles, Austria, and then to Switzerland to start his training. To round out the squad, Hiltebrand and Zollinger conjured up the idea of a national casting show in Panama. Fonseca said it was a two-day event that drew American-style football, rugby, basketball and soccer athletes. In all, 85 athletes wanted the chance; two were selected: Andres Rodriguez, who was a track & field star at age 17 and, at one point, was the ninth-fastest 200-meter sprinter in the world. Arsenio Caballero was a star on the Panamanian national American football and rugby team. Fonseca said he didn’t even know such a team existed.

“The chemistry of the team is just unbelievable,” he said. “There’s no egos. That’s what I feel about the sport and this project. It’s magic.” While the story may follow the 1993 Hollywood script, the team wants to succeed at the sport, rather than be just a one-hit wonder in the sport of two-man bobsled. “Our pressure is different,” Zollinger said. “For us, it’s a life we would have never expected. “If it were to stop today, it was worth it. We’re just going to give it our best and see how far this takes us. We’re not going for gold today, we’re not going for gold tomorrow. But we might in seven years.”

Not going for gold is one thing, but achieving the extraordinary is another. Fonseca said this is the first time a Panamanian team or athlete has ever competed in an international winter sports event. “We’re in the midst of it,” Zollinger said. “Every day is just a new first. This is one of our last firsts.” As the team members paced around the top of the hill at the Utah Olympic Park Wednesday morning, the biting cold didn’t faze them. Zollinger and Fonseca couldn’t help but grin. Rodriguez and Caballero worked on the sled with Hiltebrand, while Romero exhaled, marveling at the cold fog of his breath. “I would have never imagined this-ever,” he said. “I will enjoy this the most.”

With Zollinger piloting and Romero pushing the No. 18 sled, the Panamanian pair made history, sprinting down the sheet of ice, then jumping into the “Spirit of Panama.” Fonseca and Caballero followed suit in the No. 22 spot. “In Panama, all of these kids are rock stars,” Zollinger said. “It’s very inspiring. We are so the underdogs, and it’s so not something that has been done in Panama, but we do it. “We don’t know where it will end, or where it will head to, but we’re having lots of fun on the way to wherever it takes us. I think we really have a shot.” Once Romero hopped in behind Zollinger, two fans who lined the north side of the track screamed, “Viva Panama!” (Source: Utah Park Record)

Editor: