Every Winter Olympics needs its Jamaican bobsleigh team, and Vancouver may have already found its. 

Meet Joshua Lose, a 23-year-old Australian long track speed skater who is determined to be at the Games in February. Sure he may come from a country that doesn't have a single speed skating track, he may have learned to skate only a year ago, and he may have been cursed by the most unfortunate surname in sports, but Lose is blessed with one thing: eternal optimism. Lose may not win, but he figures he can skate fast enough over the next few months to make it into the Games. Still, he knows the question before it is asked.

"We're not a speed skating country, I'm aware of that," Lose said in a rare postrace interview, if only because he rarely gets stopped for interviews. "I didn't even know what long track was until about a year ago."

But those are minor details. Undaunted, he is one of three former in-line skaters from Australia trying to make the jump to the ice for Vancouver. When he laced up his skates last weekend for the Norwegian leg of the World Cup long-track circuit, the public-address announcers informed the crowd that they were witnessing history. Lose was the first Australian to skate a World Cup race at the famed Viking Ship oval in Hamar.

The announcement drew applause from the locals, which Lose unfortunately could not hear because he was too busy huffing around the track chasing a German in the other lane.

The dream began in late 2008 when Desly Hill, an Australian who coaches in-line skating in the Netherlands, contacted Lose after he started winning races on the in-line circuit (skates with wheels).

"She said to me, ‘Do you want to try ice skating?'." Lose recalls. "And I said, ‘Why the hell not?'." Soon a nucleus of young Australians was formed. Hill convinced two other up-and-comers from the in-line circuit to convert to ice, adding Daniel Greig and Sophie Muir.

"The girl was backpacking around the world," Lose said. "And Des said, ‘Hey, you want to be a speed skater?' And she said okay."

It was that simple. But with a team now in place, there was a small problem. "None of us had ever skated on ice before," Lose said. "For the first few days, we were just holding on to the walls not really knowing what we were doing."

He then kicked his leg out in a skating stride to illustrate his point. "For the first few days I couldn't do that."

It would be foolish to question the team's dedication, though. All three picked up and moved to Heerenveen, the Netherlands, which in speed-skating terms is like going to Yankee Stadium to learn baseball. Lose bagged groceries in a Dutch supermarket to pay rent and buy skates.

The Aussies then set a goal that seemed laughable. Lose, Greig and Muir made a pact that they would make the World Cup circuit within a year. Once they figured out how to skate without holding on to things, their in-line skating pedigree carried them forward at a remarkable pace.

"All my friends are telling me I can't do it, that we're insane," Lose said. "But we've been surprising ourselves."

Despite the steep learning curve, by last spring their times were good enough to compete internationally.

Still, Olympic purists shouldn't laugh too hard. Australia is not devoid of a speed-skating history. The country's first Winter Olympian was long-track speed skater Kenneth Kennedy, whose best showing was 36th in the 500 metres at the 1936 Games. He was followed by Colin Hickey, the country's most successful long-tracker, who moved to Norway at 18 and went on to achieve Australia's best showing, seventh in the 500 at the 1956 Games.

Then came Aussie legend Colin Coates, who competed in six Winter Olympics, finally hanging up the blades after Calgary in 1988 at 41. Lillehammer, in 1994, was the last time Australia qualified a long track skater for the Olympics.

However, in the 15 years since then, the sport has gone quiet Down Under. It has also been overtaken by short-track speed skating, with the Australian program achieving modest fame in 2006 when it won the country's first Winter Olympics medal.

Those who watched the Turin Games may recall Steven Bradbury, the shocked Aussie who cruised to victory in the men's 1,000 metres short-track race after a pileup of skaters wiped out most of the field in front of him, including the heavily favoured American Apolo Anton Ohno.

"God smiles on you some days and this is my day," a stunned Bradbury told reporters, before returning home to a hero's welcome.

But on the long track, Australia is still trying to make a name. All Lose and his teammates need to do is qualify for Vancouver first, and maybe luck will strike them.

Lose figures Muir has the best chance of making the Olympics. She was not in Hamar for the World Cup, but her time in the 500 is only a sliver away from what is needed to make the grade. If she manages, Muir would become her country's first female winter Olympian.

And despite the inevitable comparisons to the Jamaican bobsleigh team, which took Calgary by storm in 1988 as the ultimate underdog, Lose doesn't mind them, but he can hold his own on the long track. At 5 foot 8 and 155 pounds, the man they call J-Lo, placed 20th of 22 skaters in the Division B 1,500-metre race in Hamar on the weekend, and pulled off a personal-best time.

So when he's asked if their crazy plan might work, and if Canadians should expect to see an Australian long track skater in Vancouver, Lose was confident.

"An Australian? Yes," he said. "I can't promise that it's me. But there will be one."

Grant Robertson
The Globe and Mail