Only a year after Huskies football sensation Ben Coakwell finished his last season with the club, he is finding international success in bobsledding. With only three months of bobsled training under his belt, the former running back is already competing for Team Canada on the world stage.

After leading the Huskies in both rushing and scoring during his final year of university sport eligibility, Coakwell attended a Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton blue chip camp in March, 2012. BCS selected a handful of high-calibre athletes with potential to make the national bobsleigh team to participate in the camp. After an impressive camp, Coakwell moved to Calgary in September to train full-time with Canada’s bobsleigh team.

“Everything happened so fast. I was a football player, and bobsledding kind of reached out to me after my football career was done,” Coakwell said. “Now I’m competing with Canada and it’s pretty exciting.”

Coakwell admitted that he didn’t even know that bobsledding was an option until CFL running back Jesse Lumsden retired from football and joined Canada’s bobsleigh team before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“The fact that Lumsden did it kind of paved the road for me to think it was an actual possibility,” said Coakwell, who is now living with Lumsden and learning about bobsledding from his former football hero.

Both Lumsden and Coakwell are pushers for Canada’s two- and four-man bobsled teams. In a four-man bobsled team there are three pushers and one driver. Lumsden pushes for Canada 1, Canada’s top ranked four-man team. Canada 1 driver, Lyndon Rush, is also a Huskie football alumnus and brother to current Huskies defensive end Ben Rush. Lyndon won the Olympic bronze medal in the four-man bobsled event in 2010. Meanwhile Coakwell, in his first season with Team Canada, is a pusher and brakeman for Canada 2, the nation’s second ranked four-man team.

“There are three Canadian teams, and through testing you find out which team you will be on and where you fit,” Coakwell said. “As the brakeman for my sled, I have to be the fastest because I run the furthest before jumping in.”

Coakwell says a common misconception about bobsled pushers is that they lean to turn the sled around corners when they are going down the track. “When you are riding the track your goal is to be as low as you can be. You try to stay in the middle of the sled, lined up with the person in front of you for as long as possible.

“As the brakeman I have to memorize the track because I can’t see what I’m doing but I have to pull the brakes when the race is over,” Coakwell said.

Coakwell and the rest of BCS are currently competing in the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup, a circuit of bobsleigh and skeleton races at venues around the world.

The first race was in Lake Placid, N.Y. on Nov. 10. There Coakwell helped push Canada 2 to a 10th place finish in his first international race. The following weekend his squad bumped up to eighth place, and on Nov. 24 in Whistler, Coakwell won his first medal as a bobsledder. Along with the other three members of Canada 2, he claimed bronze on the same track used in the 2010 Olympics.

Coakwell said winning a medal this early on in his career makes him excited for what the future holds. “There are guys on the team that took seven or eight years to win their first World Cup medal. So I’m pretty lucky to be on this team.”

On Nov. 29 the team will pack up their sleds and head to Winterberg, Germany for a European swing of the World Cup. The results of this World Cup, and other international bobsled events, will be adjusting the world rankings that determine which countries will be represented at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Coakwell is excited about the prospect of representing his country at the 2014 Olympics and says that he might even continue with bobsledding after the Sochi Olympics.

“I’m young in the sport comparatively. Most athletes hit their peak around 28 in bobsleigh. I’m only 25 and I think it’s definitely a possibility for me to push through and train for the 2018 Olympics.”

For now Coakwell will focus on continuing to improve his bobsleigh skills, one race at a time.

[box type=”info”]To follow Coakwell’s journey to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, like his athlete page at facebook.com/ben10speed.[/box]

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Photo: Ken Childs & Supplied