The snowy slopes of Utah's Wasatch mountains bear little resemblance to the islands of the Pacific. But that doesn't concern Oa Misifoa, who has set his sights on becoming part of the first Samoan bobsleigh team.

While officials of the 2002 Winter Games deal with the fallout from the bid scandal that rocked the Olympic movement, Misifoa and a band of USbased Pacific Islanders press on with their own Olympic quest.

Inspired by Cool Runnings, the fictionalised movie account of the birth of the Jamaican bobsleigh team, Misifoa answered a call to Utah-based Polynesian youths to try the unfamiliar sport.

"I just went to check it out to see if it was a joke or something," said Misifoa, who originally went to the States to play American football.

"It's freakin', it's cool," he said, warming to American jargon. Many Islanders have made Utah their home, largely through missionary efforts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), who make up a large portion of the population in the now discredited Olympic City.