Jesse Lumsden

0:03Jesse Wilson, thank you so much for doing this. Yeah, my pleasure. I was just talking to you out there, a big change for you. This is no longer football. No, it's been a very exciting and interesting year. So you've been doing this for one year only? Rookie? I am a rookie. I developed a passion for this sport very, very quickly. You know, working around the guys and with Pierre and stuff like that. It's a, you know, change in wanting to know more and it's something that I truly enjoy. It's an amazing opportunity to be, you know, an issue right now, to be able to have the opportunity to represent my country for a sport. It's something that I mentioned in the speech that I did. I won an award in Calgary, actually, after a city. You know, I had so much respect for the athletes that I was up against because they were going to go on and represent Canada, Pan and Games, Olympic Games, and in their very sport, that's something I'd never be able to do.

0:57So to be able to work Canada's, the Longest of minutes, it's a pretty big honor for me. So what got you into Bob's? How did this all come about? I was recruited. Really? I was recruited from Matt Hendog the director of Bob's City of Canada. I had received emails in recruiting University of McMaster and I respectfully declined when the opportunity arose in the university because I was trying to make a professional football league. And that's where my goals were at that time. After my second shoulder surgery and they had contact with me, I looked at it more as an opportunity to cross-tray. Maybe something that would help me on the football field and I still believe that it will. Because it's just the involvement of speed and power like no other.

1:43So I went and I did the testing, I tested well and got asked to go to Biden, the National Championships, and I did. We developed a pretty good chemistry as a team and we did well and I made the opportunity to get a chance to go to World Cup. My football season had finished the following year and I made it clear to add that football was my number one priority. That's the first and foremost. Well, it only lasted 20 minutes. So the weeks after that were real hard on me. But having the opportunity to still Bob's light after my surgery was not only a physical but definitely a mental therapy for me.

2:28It gave me something that I could focus on and not sit on the couch, feel sorry for myself. If I wanted to do this, if I wanted to be where I am now, I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself. After my third surgery, the surgery went great. The recovery has been going great and I've been taking care of in every way possible with our medical staff on tour and our strength and conditioning and everything like that. It's just, I couldn't be happier with what I'm now right now. So that takes us pretty much great until now. It's been a very emotional short period of time with me and my family. So, I mean, they are so excited.

3:16It's just finally starting to, it really is only starting to sink. My parents asked me yesterday, I said not really. I mean, I've been in such a so go go go go. I haven't had a chance to sit down and take a breath and realize what's going to happen in 20 days. So now it's starting to kick in. And just wait till you're out there, man. It's going to be a whole new vlogging. It's going to be incredible. I know you're very excited to compete. Are you excited to see other stuff? I'm assuming it's your first Olympics. It is my first Olympics. I'm not sure exactly what kind of timeframe we'll have to discuss the other things. I don't know. If I don't see another event in the two medals, it's going to be an Olympics. So, I'm sure there will be a couple days where you get to go around and get a feel of what's going on.

4:03I said before I'm going to compete and I'm going to go win. That's my goal. You sound like a football player. I know. I bring a lot of intensity to the line and stuff like that. That's just right from football. I'm fairly full of vocal when we're getting ready to go. That's just part of my upbringing and sport. I think the guys like it. I haven't told you to shut up. You're probably scared too. We all feed off of each other. That's the big part. We can really get fired up, feed off each other's strengths. How is the shoulder doing by the way? It's good. It's getting strong. It's doing well. I did a lot of work on it.

4:51But it feels different. It has a passive feel tight. It feels like I'm able to throw a 450.7 in front of me. As fast as hard as I possibly can, I'm able to take five, six, seven forces, G-forces directly down on my back and shoulder. It doesn't bother it. It doesn't create any problems. I can go bench pressing a ton of weight again and lifting a ton and doing all the small little things I need to do to correct the small muscles that help stabilize everything as well. It's just been going great. Being a new guy to the sport, if you can explain to everyone what exactly you do in the bobsled. Okay. Well, when I'm in the two-man sled, I have two jobs.

5:39I have to get the sled moving as fast as it possibly can in that 50-meter mark where the grooves are cut where the sled sits. After that, I get in and I make myself as small as possible to do an aerodynamic. At that point, I know I have to count and feel where I am. At the end, I have to pull the brakes. Braving stretches range from certain distances, some of them are real short. So you're going to know right when, so you can really hammer them on. You can't see anything. You can't see anything. It's all I feel. The biggest thing that I've found is I'll look at the track and I'll walk the track. I'll go by pressures. Each track has, depending on where you are, three or four, maybe five turns, where you feel a lot of pressure.

6:26That's where I know where I am because there's also turns that are chicanes, where it's just very little transitions that count as turns. You can't see them go one, two, three. Sometimes it'll feel like a tracking in Kinesi, Germany, a corner at the bottom called Eco-Vaughn. I built seven G's of pressure right down the pot. It's pretty much flat on your back and neck. There's no other turn on that. So I know when I feel that, I have two more turns and I pull the brakes. It's the same in Whistler. Thunderbird, I believe it's 16. It's a big, big right hand, but it's five and a half G's of pressure. It's a long pressure, so I mean, it's not all becoming out of my nose.

7:11You have at least you'll know when it's time. It's no one it's time. And then in the foreman, I sit the third. I push on the left side. And we have to make sure we time up our head properly and we have to get that sledding moving exactly the same. Get it moving as fast as we possibly can. I know when Justin Krips gets up and gets off the bail and starts jumping in the sled, that's the one that's my turn and jump in. And it's kind of like a pommel horse technique. I jump off the bail and put one hand down on the sled and try to swing my legs underneath his because my seating position, my legs are kind of bent underneath his and his are outside. So I pomor swing myself in underneath and hold myself up for a level of coming behind me and it has to happen quick. It's smooth, right? There's been a couple of loads where I've got caught and kind of leaned one way or another and that's all part of the learning curve, but it's getting real good.

8:03Awesome. So I'm back to football just for a second. I play a little American ball too. And obviously besides the obvious difference is four down, bigger field, bigger ball. What did you notice is the biggest difference for you as a player? To be honest, there wasn't a time. I felt very, very competitive where I was. You notice that everybody says all the faster, the faster. Well, the reason it looks faster on TV and you think it's faster because you're on a smaller field. People get from A to B a lot quicker. In terms of a physical sense, the outline is bigger and the D line is bigger. And the reason is because they don't have to cover as much ground. You see faster and smaller D alignment in the CFL because you have those guys dropping out in the coverage sometimes in short zone situations. So that was the biggest difference.

8:50Both training camps are extremely difficult and taxing on the body and the mind. And seasons are very, very long. Football is football, but those are the best. Well, I guess the biggest difference is it would have been nice to see it on a full paycheck. Those are considerably bigger. Yes, they are. You're doing pretty well with the Eskimos, I think. Yeah, I know. I'm very happy with why I am in terms of a professional standpoint. When I hear dual sport, maybe there will be football in the Olympics one day and you can go back. I do it too, but you never know. I just got to pick a Summer Olympics sport that I can get into. Softball it. Does Canada have a handball team? I don't know. Because they get paid a lot of money. Well, then we'll both look into it.

9:36We'll both see what is it. 2012 will be in the handball team. Thanks, Jesse. Appreciate it.