Winter Olympics 2018 Bobsleigh team includes former Marauders

2004 Hec Crighton Trophy winner Jesse Lumsden will make his third appearance at the Olympic Games in February, while Marauders men’s rugby alumnus Cam Stones is due to debut for Team Canada when the Canadians arrive in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The two former McMaster standouts were among 18 bobsleigh athletes named to Team Canada’s largest-ever contingent in the sports of bobsleigh and skeleton on January 24.

A third Marauder, former running back Joey Nemet will serve as an alternate for the Canadians and travel to South Korea alongside the team.

Lumsden enters the Olympics on a high, having won World Cup silver alongside pilot Justin Kripps, who will head up his sled in PyeongChang, in December.

“It was an expectation for me to go to these Games, and the goal is to win and stand on the podium and sing the national anthem,” said Lumsden. “Now that the announcement is past us, we can get back to work, which started almost immediately.”

“We’re all back working hard and getting those final preparations in.”

A four-year star for the Marauders football team, where he contributed to three Yates Cup titles, Lumsden remains McMaster’s all-time leader in career touchdowns (47) and rushing yards (4,138).

The 2004 season, which culminated in his being named as McMaster’s fourth winner of the Hec Crighton Trophy, saw the running back set single-season records for points scored (126), touchdowns (21), rushing yards (1,816) and average yards per carry (10.2).

Taking his first steps in the sport of bobsleigh in 2009, while rehabilitation from an injury had put his career in the Canadian Football League on hold, Lumsden qualified for his first Olympic Games at Vancouver in 2010, where he recorded a pair of fifth-place finishes with pilot Pierre Lueders.

He retired from football the following year and turned his focus solely to bobsleigh, winning silver in the two-man event at the 2012 World Championships alongside pilot Lyndon Rush, as well as the 2012-13 overall title.

Recording a seventh-placed finish in the two-man event at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Lumsden took an extended leave from the sport until returning to World Cup competition in 2016.

Much like Lumsden’s transition from football to bobsleigh, Stones arrived to the sport from rugby, which he played for the Marauders between 2010 and 2014.

Named as an OUA all-star twice (2011, 2012), Stones helped the Marauders to their most recent OUA Championship title as a rookie in 2010.

His involvement with the Canadian national junior program, which he captained at the U20 Men’s World Rugby Trophy in 2012, limited Stones’ time with the Marauders. But the Whitby, Ont. native completed his degree in 2015, graduating with an Honours Bachelors of Arts in Political Science.

Making his debut in bobsleigh at a North American World Cup event in 2015, Stones moved into the international circuit full time in the 2016-17 season.

He races as a member of Chris Spring’s four-man sled, and was part of three top-10 finishes on the World Cup circuit in 2017-18.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to take in everything that the Games is about,” said Stones. “Since I was young, I was a fan of the Olympics, so to be able to say that I will be attending and competing at one is exciting.”

“Canada always has such strong winter olympic teams, so it’s an absolute honour to be part of one.”

Second behind Lumsden on McMaster’s career rushing yards list with 2,640, Nemet followed his fellow Marauder into the sport of bobsleigh after graduating in 2012.

Racing primarily in the four-man event, Nemet’s best result on the track came in the two-man event at a North American Cup in Whistler, BC in 2015, where he won gold.

Most recently, Nemet helped Canada’s four-man sled piloted by Kripps to a 16th-placed finish at a World Cup event in St. Moritz, Switzerland on January 14.

Bobsleigh at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang will be contested at the Alpensia Sliding Centre, opening on February 18 with the first round of two-man runs, and closing on February 25 with the final runs of the four-man event.