Brazilian bobsled driver Eric Maleson hopes a frozen banana will be his meal ticket to Utah Olympic Park.
Not just any banana, but the "Frozen Banana" — the bright yellow, two-man bobsled that became the unofficial symbol of enterprise and ingenuity during the 1998 Nagano Winter Games.
The novelty of a bobsled team from a tropical nation, better known for its Amazon jungles and balmy beaches, was not lost on Maleson and fellow Massachusetts resident and compatriot Ricardo Raschini, who hoped to become Brazil's representatives in the two-man bobsled in Nagano. The pair pitched everything from T-shirts to Olympic pins, with the Frozen Banana logo quickly becoming a common sight.
Stymied from competing in the Nagano Games by policies and politics, Maleson has his eye on Salt Lake City and the 2002 Olympics, as well as next month's World Cup bobsled competition on the Utah Olympic Park bobsled track in Park City. Now his hopes are pinned on qualifying for the 2002 Winter Games.
And Maleson, in a telephone interview from his home in Boston, says he is up to some of his creative fund-raising antics — this time offering the original "Frozen Banana" bobsled for sale via online auction for a minimum bid of $5,000. Proceeds will be used in part to help the Brazilian bobsled team race in Utah's World Cup event Feb. 19-25.
Expected to attract memorabilia collectors or sports bar owners, the sled didn't get any takers the first week it was listed on eBay; however, Maleson relisted the Frozen Banana again Tuesday night for a 10-day stay on eBay and has one bid already submitted at the $5,000 minimum.
Built in Italy more than a decade ago, the sled was purchased by Maleson in 1995 from a retiring U.S. bobsled driver. The sled-turned-international-icon became expendable when a Team Brazil supporter, with a warm heart and deep pockets, purchased two newer used sleds — a two-man and a four-man.
The two-man sled has since been dubbed "Frozen Banana II" and the four-man sled "Samba On Ice."
Maleson's involvement in bobsled sounds like something straight from a script for "Cool Runnings," the Disney film based on the Jamaican bobsled team and its Olympic debut at the 1988 Calgary Games. A sports enthusiast and auto-racing fanatic who came to study in the Boston area a decade ago, the Rio native found himself opting out of outdoor activities when it was wintertime in New England.
"Brazilians love outdoors sports, but when I came to this country, I stayed indoors. It was too cold," Maleson said.
A friend who was a bobsledder from Armenia invited him to try the sport at Lake Placid, N.Y.; the host city of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics was just a five-hour drive away. Having dabbled a bit in small-car racing back in Brazil, Maleson found himself hooked on bobsledding and eventually packing International Bobsled and Toboggan Federation (FIBT) credentials.
The 33-year-old Maleson even doubles as president of the Brazilian Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton Association, having given up his real estate work in Massachusetts for the sport.
Scrambling for any sponsorship money possible, Maleson and Raschini managed to make it to Nagano for the 1998 Games, only to find they lacked some of the necessary paperwork as well as an official sanction from the Brazilian Olympic Committee, which wanted to embrace bobsled on a little slower pace and a lesser chance for embarrassment on an international stage like the Winter Games.
Since then, Raschini has switched to luge. He's ranked second in the world on the Nations Cup circuit, just one step below the World Cup level. And Maleson has been collaborating with the Brazilian track federation in welcoming some of the country's top stars in the sprints, hurdles and decathlon, including two-time national decathlon champion Edson Bindilatti.
Last November, Maleson and his teammates competed in the two- and four-man events in Lake Placid on the America's Cup circuit, which is the second-tier level for World Cup wannabes.
Maleson piloted Frozen Banana II to a seventh place among the international sleds in the two-man event, never crashing once on the challenging and technical Lake Placid track that was claiming sled after overturned sled during competition.
And driving the Samba On Ice sled in the four-man event, Maleson drove Brazil to its first podium finish by placing third behind two U.S. squads. The Brazilians were plenty pleased with their bronze medals, despite the fact that many other teams pulled out after the rash of crashes and the three finishers were the only three teams that actually competed.
To qualify for the 2002 Olympics, the Brazilians must compete in five sanctioned international competitions on three different tracks this season and next, and score a minimum of 60 points in placing order. They made the America's Cup races in Lake Placid in November and plan on the World Cup races next month in Utah, then Lake Placid again, meaning that in the next 12 months they'll need at least two more events, including one at a track other than in Park City or Lake Placid.
In order to compete, Maleson will continue to pound the pavement with the zeal of a politician seeking campaign funds. Besides the online auction of the sled, other endeavors this season have ranged from appearing in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York to joining David Letterman on his late-night TV show in a stunt in which Maleson and crew were handing out — you guessed it — frozen bananas to the public.
Locally, he's been calling Utah hotels and bed-and-breakfasts for lodging breaks during World Cup training and competition and airlines for airfare discounts — all with the promise of placing company names or logos on the team sleds for sponsorship deals.
"We're always offering something in exchange," said Maleson. "We'll try anything to get us the support we need, as long as it's not anything crazy or against the law — anything cool, anything to get attention."
E-MAIL: taylor@desnews.com