CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- In a country better known for sprinting, Mica Moore has taken a different route - chasing her Olympic dream on ice rather than on the track.

The 33-year-old finished 14th of 20 in the women's monobob at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Monday, posting a four-run combined time of 4:01.31.

Moore began her sporting career as a sprinter and competed for Wales in the women's 4x100m relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. In November 2016, after missing the qualifying standard for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, she decided to add bobsleigh to her athletics career.

She went on to produce Britain's best-ever women's Olympic bobsleigh finish at PyeongChang 2018. At Milan-Cortina 2026, however, Moore represented Jamaica, the homeland of her grandparents.

"This is my greatest honor of my career to represent my heritage of Jamaica at the Olympics, a moment I have only dreamt of! I hope I can make you all proud," she posted on social media ahead of the Games.

Moore started out in bobsleigh as a brakewoman and is racing as a monobob pilot this season, a switch she described as "a steep learning curve."

"It has been a tough season but it's all been worth it. Being a brakewoman, you don't have as much responsibility, you don't have someone else's life in your hands, but it is really good fun. I've really enjoyed the challenge," she said.

Speaking after the second heat at the Cortina Sliding Center, Moore said limited track time has made progress harder.

"One mistake at the top can cost you so much at the bottom," she said, adding that mastering the opening corner - "very much a feeling thing" - had taken time.

Moore said her journey also reflects the gradual progress of Jamaica's bobsleigh program, long linked to "Cool Runnings," the 1993 Disney film inspired by the country's Olympic debut in 1988.

Visibility, she added, still matters as the program grows. "People know that we're on the map. Each year we've been building."

Financial constraints remain a major challenge. Moore said she self-funded her season at a cost of more than 40,000 pounds (about 54,500 U.S. dollars), while some established programs operate with multi-million-pound budgets over an Olympic cycle.

"In a sport like bobsleigh, it's finances," she said. "But we've got the heart and the drive, and as long as you've got that, you make things happen."

Despite the hurdles, Moore said the joy of competition continues to fuel her.

"Look at the smiles when we come off the track, it's so much fun... Going down in a bobsleigh, the challenge of it all and trying to just get the perfect run is really fun," she said. ■