How an Islander's 'last-ditch effort' landed him on Canada's bobsled team

Darren Lundrigan says he doesn't know what it is about Islanders and bobsledding, but he's glad he gave it a shot.

Lundrigan, 26, is the third Islander to make the national bobsled team in the last 20 years, despite being from a province with no track and only one small ski hill.

"It's a really grindy sport," he said. "It's tough mentally and physically and I think you have to have a good work ethic and you have to be a hard worker and maybe that's where it comes from."

Lundrigan, a Montague native whose main sport was soccer, never dreamed of bobsled until he participated in the RBC Training Ground in Charlottetown in 2017. But he wondered if his athletic ability would fit somewhere else.

'Kind of curious'

"It's kind of my last-ditch effort at seeing if I could do anything at sport," he said. "I was kind of curious to see what would come of it."

The RBC Training Ground is back again on Sunday at UPEI. It is a series of events across the country where Canada's top athletes can show coaches their skills. Walk-ons are accepted. 

Selected athletes get a chance to move to the next round of testing in a specific Olympic sport. By the end of the program 30 Canadians will be called Future Olympians, and will get some money and the resources to help train.

Lundrigan wound up as the brakeman on Canada's national bobsled team, training in Calgary and competing last winter in events across North America.

Olympic goal

He said his goal now is to compete in bobsled in the 2022 Olympics, following in the footsteps of fellow Islanders Dave (Eli) MacEachern, who won gold in 1998, and Heather Moyse, who won gold in 2010 and 2014.

Don't be surprised if national team coaches — especially bobsled — have their eyes on P.E.I. on Sunday.

"If the Training Ground wasn't there I have no idea what I'd be dong right now," Lundrigan said. "I probably wouldn't be doing a professional sport that's for sure, but I know there are a lot of athletes on P.E.I. who could benefit from it."

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