Canadian Athletes of the Weekend: Rush & Lumsden

Every Monday, the CBCSports.ca team profiles a Canadian athlete that excelled on the international stage over the weekend. This week's winner happens to be a pair of athletes: two-man bobsleigh teammates Lyndon Rush and Jesse Lumsden.

Rush, the pilot from Humboldt, Sask., and his brakeman Lumsden, of Burlington, Ont., put together a pair of great runs down the track in Koenigsee, Germany to strike two-man bobsleigh gold on Saturday.

The pair raced to a time of one minute 40.22 seconds on a short, curvy track and beat the field by almost one-half of a second for their second climb to the top of a World Cup podium this season.

"This is a short track so you expect the times to be close, but we had things set up really well this week," Rush said. "Jesse jarred his back loading in the first push so we said to each other the second run was going to be a 'hard hat run.' He dug deep and gave me everything he had to get it done today."

Lumsden, a former CFL running back, is in his fourth season as a bobsledder, but it seems winning is winning, no matter what type of competition he's involved in.

"It is the greatest feeling in the world to know that you have won," Lumsden said. "It is what motivates me and keeps me going.

"We have such a great crew on this team. There may be only two of us in the sled but the entire team helped us win today. We win as a team and there is nothing that beats celebrating a victory as a team."

Around the world

Check out where Canada's top athletes of the weekend were in action on our interactive map:

Honourable mentions

• Kaillie Humphries (Calgary) and Chelsea Valois (Zenon Park, Sask.) returned to the top of the podium in women's two-man bobsleigh in Koenigsee.
• Canadian freestyle skier Mike Riddle (Spruce Grove, Alta.) took gold in men's halfpipe while teammate Rosalind Groenewoud (Calgary) took silver in the women's event at Copper Mountain, Colo.
• Stephen Ames (Calgary) finished tied for 20th at the PGA's Sony Open in Hawaii.
• Jennifer Jones (Winnipeg), Kevin Martin (Edmonton), Heather Nehdoin (Edmonton), Rick Lang (Thunder Bay, Ont.), Glenn Howard (Coldwater, Ont.) and their respective rinks helped Team North America triumph over Team World in the Continental Cup curling event in Penticton, B.C.