Bobsleigh

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ALTENBERG -- The need for explosive power, along with videotape, coaches' meetings and the chance that you might lose your job? Seems as though Jesse Lumsden's football career has prepared him well for bobsleigh.

The injuries ... well, yeah. Had to bring that up, didn't we? The difference, as Lumsden remarked yesterday in a conference call to formally announce he was bidding to earn a spot as a brakeman on Pierre Lueders's Olympic team? "It's five seconds of work," he said, "and so technical. Five one-hundredths of a second ..."

It is the search for that hair's-breadth of time that has Lueders excited about the possibility of Lumsden, the Edmonton Eskimos running back, pushing for him. Lumsden was in Lueders's two-man sled last weekend when they won a Europa Cup race and he will be back in the two-man sled next week in Winterberg, Germany, for Lumsden's first World Cup race. This weekend, Dave Bissett will be the brakeman. Lueders envisions a competition between Lumsden, Bissett and Neville Wright for the brakeman's spot in the two- and four-man sled, but it appears as though initially the two-man sled will be Lumsden's focus.

Lueders denied the recruiting of Lumsden meant he was unhappy with the work of his pushers. Lumsden is, he said, "another option."

Tuffy Latour, national bobsleigh coach, said the composition of the team will depend, simply, on "who can give us the fastest start in the Olympics."
Lueders said the decision will be made in part by comparing the starts he gets with a rotation of brakemen compared to other competitors.

Look: For all the fuss made about hockey in Canada, if this country is to win the Olympic medal race two gold medals in men's and women's hockey won't do it alone.

It's going to take a bunch of silver and bronze medals to do the trick and Canada has some depth in sliding sports.

Lumsden joked about taking "dragon's blood pills" yesterday when he was asked whether the injuries that have hampered his football career will be in the back of his mind. Lumsden's football season ended prematurely with a shoulder injury but he said he has clearance from the Eskimos and said his workout regimen for bobsleigh jibes nicely with football.

Asked if the fact the Olympics will be in Vancouver played a role in his decision, Lumsden demurred, saying he was thinking about "the opportunity of representing Canada" and he was focused first and foremost on the World Cup events. He was "hopeful," he said, about going to the Olympics.

In some ways, this is more about Lueders than Lumsden. This is no spare-time job for Lueders. He has invested significant personal resources - money and time - in what could be his final run at an Olympic medal and it's in keeping with his nature that he would talk about how excited he was to have "internal competition." At the recent Lake Placid event, he talked about the importance of "good, honest athletic competition" for spots.

Lueders, whose four-man team had difficulty timing its climb into the sled at the initial World Cup event three weekends ago in Lake Placid, shrugs off concern about what might seem like the mercenary nature of the move. Lumsden, who raced with Lueders last year at the Canadian championships, said he viewed the competition in a team context, noting there would be "tension, acceptance ... it's all about earning trust."

Lueders believes the competition means not only will be emerge with the best brakeman, but that brakeman will be rested because of the rotation. The Olympic teams will be nominated Jan. 17, and he denied the assertion that too many options might complicate the process.

"The athletes will determine who the best is," he said. Fingers crossed for Lumsden, then - it's never been about the athleticism. It's always been about the health.