Bobsleigh

When one door closes, another opens.

That certainly seems to be the story for CFL running back Jesse Lumsden, whose first season as an Edmonton Eskimo came to a crashing halt in the team's season opener back in July.

A tough hit left the big-name player with a dislocated left shoulder. His football season was officially declared 'over' after Lumsden underwent surgery - his third to the same shoulder - last week.

It seemed at first glance that two sports seasons would end before they had begun.

The first, Lumsden's debut season as an Eskimo after an off-season trade from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats during the winter.

The second, a drive for the 2010 Olympic podium behind bobsleigh-legend Pierre Lueders. Lumsden had pushed Lueders' two-man sled to national gold at the Canadian bobsleigh championships in March.

But according to Matt Hindle, the program manager of the Canadian national bobsleigh team, Lumsden should not be counted out of the 2010 Games. Conversely, his chances could be even better.

"The number one thing about pushing a sled is lower body power and strength," explained Hindle in a recent interview with CTVOlympics.ca. "It's your legs, it's your strength squatting, sprinting, things like that. Your upper body is fairly stationary so there's not a lot of movement and use of the shoulder in bobsleigh compared to football. There's a lot less riding on his shoulder being 100 per cent than it would be for football."

Lumsden was originally slated to join the bobsleigh team after the end of the 2009 football season. If the Eskimos made the playoffs, Lumsden would have been unable to start training with the Olympic team until early December.

Now that the running back will be spending the rest of the CFL season watching from the sidelines, there is a chance that he could join the bobsleigh team even earlier.

"We have to just wait and see the recovery process. Based on how Jesse did last year at the end of the year, he's obviously a talented athlete, someone we'd love to have in the program so we're going to make every effort to make that possible."

What started out as a training exercise to help Lumsden prepare for the 2009-10 CFL season developed into something bigger when the football player used his natural power, strength and speed to put up impressive start times in Lueders' sled.

"(Lumsden) has obviously in a couple of weeks become quite proficient at being a bobsleigh athlete," Lueders told TSN back in March. "It's happened before when athletes have come in late and gone to the Olympics and such, so anything is possible."

Coaches also saw something special in the 27-year-old athlete. "You look at the numbers...when we did our testing in the Ice House - pushing a bobsled over 15 metres - (and Lumsden) was right there with our best guy on the team, Lascelles Brown," said Canadian Bobsleigh head coach Tuffy Latour shortly after Lumsden's strong spring performance. "So we're optimistic that he can push with the best of them."

Despite Lunsden's inujry, Hindle said the six-foot-two, 226-pound competitor is already in contact with bobsleigh trainers.

"Our strength coaches have been working with him on physical training programs and things that can be done without affecting the healing process for his shoulder and we're just going to continually monitor that and see how he's doing and do whatever we can," said Hindle.

If Lumsden is able to recover in time, he will have to prove to bobsleigh officials he should be on the Olympic team. He will probably miss the national team selection races and would instead have to be parachuted into World Cup races some time after that. The World Cup season begins in November. 

Canada has not won Olympic gold since Lueders and brakeman David MacEachern tied for first in Nagano in 1998. Canada is expected to qualify four men's sleds - two in the two-man event, two in the four-man - for the Vancouver Olympics and Hindle believes Lumsden could be there.

"Put it this way," Hindle said, "When Jesse came out at the end of last year he was recovering from a far more major surgery, from what I understand. And with far less preparation, he came in and did quite well in our selection camp and our Canadian championship. So with more prep time and a somewhat speedy recovery I'm pretty optimistic that he is going to be able to contribute to the program this year."