For Team Mexico, the bobsledding is all uphill

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These guys are unlikely sports icons.
    They rank somewhere between 28th and 32nd in the world. They were "Cool Runnings" before Disney decided to make a movie about bumbling
    Jamaican bobsledders.
    Or, think of it this way: They're the L.A. Clippers, British ski jumper Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards or German tennis player Rainer Scheuttler - not necessarily losers, but not gold medalists, either.
   

And yet, the tween girls at Dual Immersion Academy are going wild.
    "Girls, hands to selves," a frazzled teacher shouts ineffectually as the squealing hormone vectors latch on to 19-year-old César Avendaño, brakeman for the Mexican bobsled team.
    He might as well be Michael Phelps.
    This moment of adulation is a nice change for a group of men who travel like the Joads, train in obscurity and scrap for respect in uniforms that are coming unstitched.
    "We have a disadvantage," says Roberto Tames, the 44-year-old team captain and pilot.
    Understatement.
    When other teams ship their equipment and fly, they strap their aging sleds to a beat up '78 Chevy pickup with no heat and start the 36-hour road trip from Guadalajara to Park City. The sleds are patched. A decal says "Inn at Mazatla" (the "n" has rubbed off). They stay in donated condos. They've worn holes in their uniforms.
    While the competition works at being athletes, the men teach kindergarten and fix bicycles and go to college. They work out alone, sprinting and lifting weights and pushing the sled on a track the Mexican government built to simulate the start of an alpine luge. And every year at this time, they drive north for four weeks of training at the Utah Olympic Park.
    "It's all about time on the ice," says Tames. "We're trying to get better drivers so we can qualify for the Olympics."
    He's the cockeyed optimist behind an improbable 24-year quest for Olympic glory in a winter sport.
    While other boys played fútbol (soccer), Tames got a wheel car. In the steamy tropical heat of home, he pretended he was slicing down a snowy mountain.
    Then in 1984, inspired by Mexico's first Olympic skier (an Austrian with a Mexican mother), he called the International Bobsled Federation. Together with three of his brothers, he qualified for the '88 and '92 Games. "We were not very good," he says.
    His brothers retired, but Tames kept on, racing in the 2002 Winter Games, finishing 35th in the two-man event, ahead of only the Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago. Turin didn't end much better. But in smaller races, the America's Cup and the Russian Nationals, Mexican teams have beaten crews from Canada and the U.S.
    "They have the knowledge. They have the talent. They're capable," says Art Piña, spokesman for the family that owns the Mazatlan time-share resort and the team's major sponsor. "They just don't have the right equipment."
    Understandably, the Mexican government focuses on summer sports where the chances of success are greater - diving, soccer, golf. A new sled costs $50,000. Helmets are $500. Spikes are $500.
    "It's unbelievable they have a team," Piña says. "But they're dedicated to their country and their sport."
    Tames' three marriages have ended in divorce; the constant training and travel had a lot to do with it. He has no children. "This is my life," he says.
    Next week, he will return to the push track in Guadalajara. But for now, he's trying to inspire a new generation of bobsledders.
    "You can be whatever you want to be," he yells as 360 kids scream. "No matter what anybody says."