The 58-year-old was part of the Jamaican bobsleigh team that captured the hearts of sports fans across the world after qualifying for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada.

Clayton, who is survived by his wife, Annie, a daughter, three sons and three grandchildren, was not part of the four-man team that crashed on the final run in Calgary, but former teammate Devon Harris described him as having a major influence on the team.

“I am saddened by the news of the passing of my teammate Samuel Clayton,” Harris was quoted as saying by TMZ.

“Although he never made the Olympic team Sammy was an integral part of the Jamaica bobsled team.”

“He was among the very first four selected to spearhead Jamaica’s entrance into winter sports and the Winter Olympics.”

“He was an amazing human being who will be sadly missed.”

Following his athletic career, Clayton turned his attention to music and became a renowned producer and sound engineer, collaborating with bands across the world.

In fact, it was David R. Hinds, the singer of U.K.-based band Steel Pulse, with which Clayton worked, who disclosed that the former athlete had died on March 31.

“Most important of all, in this thieving, cutthroat music industry of ours, he was trustworthy,” Hinds told The New York Times earlier this week. “Where Sam towered over the rest of his peers, is that he held dearly every task he did, no matter how small, or how tedious. They all got his relentless undivided attention.”

Jamaica became the first tropical nation to take part in the Winter Olympics in 1988, with a four-man crew comprising Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White and last-minute replacement Chris Stokes.

The former of the Stokes brothers and White also competed in the two-man event, finishing 30th out of 41 teams.

However, it was the four-man team that grabbed the headlines as the ultimate underdog story.

Coached by the late Howard Siler, who competed in the 1972 and 1980 Winter Olympics bobsledder for the U.S., the Jamaican crew ranked third-last and second-last in the first two runs, before crashing in the third run.

The sled careened into the wall of the track and flipped over, before the four-man crew climbed out of the sled and pushed it to the finish line. The quartet’s adventure in Calgary provided the inspiration for the 1993 movie Cool Runnings, in which the late John Candy played the coach.

Since its debut in Calgary, Jamaica has entered a two-man crew at every Winter Olympics with the exception of 2004, 2008 and 2018, while it fielded a four-man team in 1992, 1994 and 1998.

At the most recent Winter Olympics two years in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Jamaica entered a woman’s team for the first time.