The Trinidad and To­ba­go bob­sleigh team is fac­ing hur­dles as they push for Olympic qual­i­fi­ca­tion.

De­spite re­cent im­prove­ments in per­for­mance, the team is strug­gling to keep up with the com­pe­ti­tion due to out­dat­ed equip­ment.

With the 2026 Olympics on the hori­zon, the lack of sup­port could jeop­ar­dise their chances of qual­i­fy­ing, even though they have shown po­ten­tial against top ath­letes at glob­al events, such as the on­go­ing World Cup, which is an Olympic qual­i­fy­ing event.

In an ef­fort to bridge the gap, the So­ca Slid­ers, who con­sist of head coach Lee John­ston, cap­tain Ax­el Brown, Tom Har­ris, De Aun­dre John, Sha­keel John, and Xaver­ri Williams, have start­ed a Go­FundMe cam­paign as they need as­sis­tance to keep com­pet­ing at the high­est lev­el.

“We got a Go­FundMe app out there, live at the mo­ment, with any­one that wants to sup­port. We im­plore you, too, be­cause it means a lot, and it could help us set new Caribbean his­to­ry. We are al­ready break­ing grounds un­touched by Tri­nis be­fore, and we are try­ing to leave our mark on the world scene and to do that, we need help,” Brown said.

Brown al­so gave an ex­am­ple of the im­por­tance of why they need new equip­ment when they par­tic­i­pat­ed in the third leg of the IB­SF World Cup at St Moritz-Cele­ri­na, Switzer­land.

The team placed 24th with a time of one minute and sev­en sec­onds in the four-man event, which fol­lowed their fin­ish of 21st in the first World Cup event on Jan­u­ary 12, show­ing the de­crease in per­for­mance by just one week.

The So­ca Slid­ers are set to re­turn to ac­tion at the IB­SF World Cup this week­end in Lille­ham­mer, Nor­way.

Brown and Har­ris will com­pete in the two-man event and team up with De Aun­dre and Sha­keel in the four-man race.