Lyndon Rush (born November 24, 1980) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
retired
bobsled
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...
der who has competed since 2004. Rush took up bobsleigh after spending five years playing
Canadian football
Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...
for the
University of Saskatchewan
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
. He initially trained as a brakeman before switching to driving due to a hamstring injury.
Rush won a bronze medal in the four-man event at the
2010 Winter Olympics
)''
, nations = 82
, athletes = 2,626
, events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, opening = February 12, 2010
, closing = February 28, 2010
, opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean
, cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gret ...
in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, British Columbia, Canada. He won the silver medal in the mixed
bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...
-
skeleton team event at the
2008 FIBT World Championships in
Altenberg, Germany
Altenberg () is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany.
Geography
The town is situated in the Ore Mountains, 32 km south of Dresden, and 15 km northwest of Teplice, Czech Republic. The village of ...
.
Born in
Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Rush made his first breakthroughs in bobsleigh during the
2009–10 Bobsleigh World Cup winning the opening four-man event in
Park City, Utah
Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake Cit ...
. Rush also finished third at the four-man event in
Cesana
Cesana Torinese (French ''Césanne'') is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about west of Turin, on the border with France. Cesana is a popular winter ski resort, being connect ...
, Italy, all of which contributed to his current ranking of third in the four-man event. Rush, together with
Lascelles Brown, tied for the victory with
André Lange
André Lange (; born 28 June 1973) is a retired German bobsledder and the most successful bob pilot of all time. Competing at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, he has won four gold and one silver medals. Lange originally started his sledd ...
at the two-man event in
St-Moritz
St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality in ...
; this was their first victory and podium in the two-man.
After his runs in both two-man and four-man bobsleigh at the 2010 Winter Olympics, Rush openly mused about retiring. Rush is a deeply religious and devoted family man and following the four-man bobsleigh run in Whistler in which he lost out on silver by 1/100 of a second, Rush said that "It makes me feel like I don't want to retire. I like racing bobsled. It's fun. But I think I might have to move on. I'm 29 years old. I'm not a kid. I can't go touring all over Europe all the time."
He became partners with
Jesse Lumsden
Jesse Lumsden (born August 3, 1982) is a Canadian Olympic bobsledder and a retired Canadian football player, who played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders.
Career Football
Lumsden is the son of former CFL fullba ...
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 Rush's second victory in two-man event and his eighth medal in his career on the World Cup circuit. Rush then built on his successes with Lumsden to win a silver medal at the
2012 World Championships. There, despite battling through a stomach virus on his last two runs, as he was in second through the first two runs; he was eventually overtaken by
Steven Holcomb pushing him to the silver by 1/100 of a second. In 2013 the duo of Rush and Lumsden won the overall World Cup two-man bobsleigh title.
Rush retired from the sport after the
2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi. Since retiring he has taken up a role as assistant coach of
WinSport Academy's bobsleigh programme, training developing bobsledders.
Rush married Krysta in 2003, and the couple have three daughters and a son.
Rush resides in
Sylvan Lake,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
where he works as a real estate agent.
References
CTV Olympic Profile*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rush, Lyndon
1980 births
Bobsledders at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Bobsledders at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Canadian male bobsledders
Living people
Olympic bobsledders for Canada
Olympic bronze medalists for Canada
Sportspeople from Humboldt, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Huskies football players
Sportspeople from Saskatchewan
Olympic medalists in bobsleigh
Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Canadian sports coaches