The cast of classic 1993 sports film Cool Runnings has reunited 31 years after the death of star John Candy.

Four of the main stars of the film were brought together at 90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut on Friday 32 years after their Disney film was released.

Rawle D. Lewis, Doug E. Doug, Leon Robinson, and Malik Yoba – who played the members of the Jamaican bobsled Olympic team – happily posed together at the gathering featuring some of the biggest stars of the 1990s.

Not in attendance was leading man Candy who died of a heart attack on March 4 1994.

Cool Runnings was a smash hit at the box office as it earned $154.9million on a budget of just $17million. 

Released in 1993, events of the film are very loosely based on the true story of huge underdogs Jamaica, a country with about as much chance of developing ice as Wales have of seeing a dry season, somehow qualifying for the bobsleigh event at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. 

The cast of classic 1993 sports film Cool Runnings has reunited 31 years after the death of star John Candy as they appeared

Rawle D. Lewis, Doug E. Doug, Leon Robinson, and Malik Yoba – who played the members of the Jamaican bobsled Olympic team – happily posed together at 90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut on Friday

Not in attendance was leading man Candy who died of a heart attack on March 4 1994

While much of the events are not exactly true to script (that’s entertainment, folks) it features the rookie four-man team fighting against the odds to compete at the Games while being coached by Irv Blitzer, played wonderfully by Candy. 

Once they get to the Games, having barely ever seen ice, the team bond via a failure of trying to copy elite team Switzerland, kissing a ‘lucky’ egg, and getting into bar fights with a disrespectful East German crew – and it all plays out as a fantastic comedy that makes for a timeless classic. Now for the spoiler alert.

Read More John Candy’s children pay emotional tribute to late actor on the 30th anniversary of his tragic death aged 43

After a terrible first run in the event, where they try to copy Switzerland’s robotic push start chant of ‘ein, zwei, drei’, they improve with a competent and highly respectable second run having ditched the Swiss ‘one, two, three’ for the ‘Jamaican style’ and the far catchier ‘feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it’s bobsled time! Cool Runnings!’

But on the third and final run, an again impressive display is sadly destroyed by a mechanical error with their sled, seeing them crash at high speed before, to huge cheers and applause, they carry their sleigh on their shoulders over the line to complete the course and end their Olympics in heroic defeat.

If you haven’t already seen the film put it top of your list of things to do. While much of the events are not exactly true to script (that’s entertainment, folks) it features the rookie four-man team fighting against the odds to compete at the Games while being coached by Irv Blitzer, played wonderfully by the late, great John Candy.

Once they get to the Games, having barely ever seen ice, the team bond via a failure of trying to copy elite team Switzerland, kissing a ‘lucky’ egg, and getting into bar fights with a disrespectful East German crew – and it all plays out as a fantastic comedy that makes for a timeless classic. Now for the spoiler alert.

After a terrible first run in the event, where they try to copy Switzerland’s robotic push start chant of ‘ein, zwei, drei’, they improve with a competent and highly respectable second run having ditched the Swiss ‘one, two, three’ for the ‘Jamaican style’ and the far catchier ‘feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it’s bobsled time! Cool Runnings!’

But on the third and final run, an again impressive display is sadly destroyed by a mechanical error with their sled, seeing them crash at high speed before, to huge cheers and applause, they carry their sleigh on their shoulders over the line to complete the course and end their Olympics in heroic defeat.

Cool Runnings was a smash hit at the box office as it earned $154.9million on a budget of just $17million

 Rawle D. Lewis starred as Junior Bevil

Malik Yoba portrayed Yul Brenner in the film

Doug E. Doug gave a salute as he portrayed Sanka Coffie

Leon Robinson portrayed Derice Bannock

Released in 1993, events of the film are very loosely based on the true story of huge underdogs Jamaica, a country with about as much chance of developing ice as Wales have of seeing a dry season, somehow qualifying for the bobsleigh event at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary

While that’s not how it ‘exactly’ went down in Calgary (the team’s crash was down to error, and the applause was more polite than widespread as their sled was pushed to the end), the real life events had still earned them a huge amount of due respect. 

Even the film’s loveable quartet of Derice Bannock, Sanka Coffie, Junior Bevil and Yul Brenner are fictional, with the real life team consisting of Dudley Stokes, his brother Chris, Devon Harris and Michael White.

What is true though is the incredible hurdles they overcame to even reach Calgary in the first place.

The team’s practice was little more than pushing a cart without wheels up and down a concrete strip to resemble the push start, which can make or break a bobsleigh run, in an attempt to gain early speed.

Even once they got to Calgary they didn’t have a sled and they had to rely on good will from other teams to lend them even the the most basic of equipment.

In addition, they also started out only competing in the two-man event with Dudley Stokes and White before a late decision was made to also feature in the four-man event along with Harris and Chris Stokes.

In even more bizarre circumstances, Chris knew very little about the bobsleigh event and had just three days to learn the sport from his new team-mates.

And there is more to it than just running on ice at the start before holding on for dear life as you enter the sled and hurtle down a twisty high banked chute at speeds of up to 90mph.

Soleil Moon Frye sported plenty of leather on the outing 

Andrew Lawrence, Joey Lawrence and Matthew Lawrence (left to rigth) were also in attendance

Blonde bombshell Brittany Daniel sported an all black look

Speed as well as skill is crucial, and a fast start provides crucial early momentum on the flat part of the course before gravity takes control and does the rest. Teams have to ensure they keep a straight line of heads for aerodynamic purposes, while there is a brake that can be used to scrub off speed.

Negotiating the banked turns can be a tricky balance. Go too shallow and conservative and you will not gain enough speed. Go too high and come off late, and you risk destabilizing the sled causing it to tip and crash – just like the Jamaicans did in 1988.

As you may have guessed, the fastest to complete the course over a combined amount of runs takes the gold medal.

Jenna Leigh Green donned a colorful quirky sweater

Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean appeared solo

Although Jamaica’s four-man team crashed and did not complete the course in 1988, Dudley Stokes and White did finish 30th out of 41 runners in the two-man event.

Jamaica qualified for the next three games – all featuring the Stokes brothers and placing 25th, 14th and 21st.

However, funding for the team started to dry up after the four-man team’s failure to qualify for Salt Lake City in 2002, although a two-man team did compete at the Games as well as in 2014. The sport has appealed to Jamaican women too following their debut appearance last time out in PyeongChang.

The roots of the team lies with the men’s four-man crew though and they finally came back 2022 in Beijing.