Jesse Lumsden (born August 3, 1982) is a Canadian Olympic and world champion

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobs ...

der and a retired

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

player, who played for the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home game ...

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

and

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium a ...

Career

Football

Lumsden is the son of former CFL fullback

Neil Lumsden Neil James Lumsden (born December 19, 1952) is a Canadian politician and retired professional football player. Lumsden was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2022 provincial election. He serves as Minister of Sport. Lumsden ...

. Jesse attended

Trinity College School Trinity College School (TCS) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than two years before Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School for ...

Port Hope, Ontario Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and west of Kingston, Ontario, Kingston. It is at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County, Onta ...

and Nelson High School in

Burlington, Ontario Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is a city and List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipality in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region at the west end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Can ...

(where he led them to the Metro Bowl Title), and

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

. Lumsden had a standout career at McMaster where he won the

Hec Crighton Trophy The Hec Crighton Trophy (sometimes referred to as the Hec Crighton Award) is awarded annually to the most outstanding Canadian football player in U Sports. The trophy is named after Hec Crighton who was a former teacher, coach, referee, and the ...

in 2004 and was invited to the

East-West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

. Lumsden was signed as an undrafted

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

by the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

in 2005, but was released shortly thereafter. Following his release, he had a short tenure with the

. In January 2006, he was signed to play for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

and was later released only to play with the Tiger-Cats once again. In 2009, Lumsden signed with the

, but he sustained a season-ending shoulder injury in their opening game. On May 5, 2010, Lumsden was released by the Eskimos. He signed with the

on a practice roster agreement midway through the 2010 season, and was activated in October. Lumsden was timed consistently around 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash during his playing career.

Bobsled

Lumsden took part in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics as a member of Pierre Lueders'

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobslei ...

team; he was the brakeman in the two-man sled that won the Canadian National Bobsleigh championships at the

Whistler Sliding Centre The Whistler Sliding Centre () is a Canadian bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton (sport), skeleton track located in Whistler, British Columbia, that is north of Vancouver. The centre is part of the Whistler Blackcomb resort, which comprises two ski mo ...

, March 21, 2009. It was expected that he participated in both the two-man and four-man teams in the 2009–10 world competitions leading up to the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

. On January 27, 2010 Lumsden was named to the 2010 Canadian Olympic bobsleigh team where he and driver Pierre Lueders finished fifth both in the two-man and in the four-man bobsleigh events. During the Olympics, he and his four-man bobsled team flipped over during a false turn. Justin Kripps and the others walked out of the accident untouched. Lumsden became partners with Lyndon Rush at the beginning of the 2012 season and the duo won their first World Cup Gold medal together in the two-man event on February 3, 2012. It was the first gold medal of Lumsden's career and his second medal overall. On February 19, 2012 the pair won a silver medal at the world bobsleigh championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. In 2013 Lumsden allowed Rush to win the overall World Cup two-man bobsleigh title. Lumsden qualified for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics as a member of the Canada 1 four-man bobsled team, and a member of the Canada 2, two-man bobsled. Lumsden finished 7th overall in the 2-man Bobsled competition, finishing 1.4 seconds behind the leader through 4 heats. In June 2024 Lumsden was appointed high performance director of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, the national governing body for bobsled and skeleton, after spending four and a half years in the business world with Neo Financial.

References

External links

*
JesseLumsden28.com Official websiteCanadian Football League bio
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lumsden, Jesse 1982 births Bobsledders at the 2010 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 2018 Winter Olympics Canadian male bobsledders Canadian football running backs Canadian people of Scottish descent Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Living people McMaster Marauders football players Nelson High School (Ontario) alumni Olympic bobsledders for Canada Players of Canadian football from Alberta Players of Canadian football from Ontario Sportspeople from Edmonton Canadian football people from Edmonton Canadian players of American football 21st-century Canadian sportsmen