Wayne Native To Race In Bobsleigh At Winter Olympics

WAYNE, NJ — One of the town's own is heading back to the Olympics.

Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian will pilot Jamaica's first Olympic women's bobsled team at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea next month.

It will be Fenlator-Victorian's second appearance at the Olympics. She competed for the United States in 2014 in Sochi, Russia. She and track star Lolo Jones finished 11th in the two-man bobsled event.

"PyeongChang will be my second appearance at the Winter Games, but it is just as special as my first," Fenlator-Victorian said in a statement released by the Jamaica Bobsled and Skeleton Foundation Monday. "This time I have the opportunity to represent my other home — Jamaica and make history as the first female team representing the country in the Winter Olympic games."

Fenlator-Victorian was a track star while at Wayne Valley. Her mother's battle with Lupus was an inspiration for her to keep working as hard as she could.

The Wayne Township Council and Mayor Chris Vergano honored Fenlator-Victorian when she returned home from the 2014 Winter Olympics.

"Going to the Olympics wasn't necessarily just a personal goal, but a goal for me to represent Wayne, New Jersey," she said in 2014.
"When the media asks me, 'what do you call yourself?'...I'm a Jersey Girl. And, when you have teammates from Miami, Florida, California, and New York City, they just don't get it. But, when I come home...you guys get it."

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Photo: Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian, right, and Carrie Russell of Jamaica pose after the women's bobsled World Cup race in Innsbruck Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)