Errol Kerr relaxes before the start of a FIS skiercross race at Sugar Bowl February 2.

I am standing at the second turn on Sugar Bowl’s skiercross course, a turn with a jump that had drawn a few four-letter words and their French equivalents from the skiers during training runs. A men’s quarterfinal heat whizzes by, with Jamaica’s Errol Kerr in the lead.

Next to me, a teenage park rat yells, “That’s my lucky egg, mon!” a line from Cool Runnings, the 1993 movie about the Jamaican bobsled team that competed at the 1988 Olympics.

The peanut gallery might still find the idea of a Jamaican ski team hilarious, but Kerr is all business as he prepares for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, which starts on Friday.

“I want to be the best in the world by the time I’m done,” Kerr says. “Even skiing for Jamaica I’m not a shoo-in. There’s no golden ticket. I had to work hard to get to the Olympics.”