Two former Saskatchewan Roughriders are swapping football pads for bobsleigh helmets as they prepare to represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy. Their jump from the CFL to international sport shows the power of athletic skill and determination.
Jacob Dearborn and Shaq Murray-Lawrence will wear the maple leaf as part of Canada’s national bobsleigh team at the Games. Both players once carried the football for the Roughriders, exciting fans in Regina before finding success in a very different sport.
Dearborn: From CFL Defender to Olympic Pilot
Jacob Dearborn, from Yarker, Ontario, will lead one of Canada’s men’s bobsleigh teams as a pilot. Dearborn played 14 games for the Roughriders in 2019, including a trip to the Western Division Final, and also spent time with the Riders in 2021.
His first Olympic appearance was at Beijing 2022, where he helped guide a four-man sled to a 23rd-place finish. Now, he returns with more experience and even higher hopes for success in Italy.
Murray-Lawrence: New to the Olympic Stage
Shaq Murray-Lawrence, originally from Scarborough, Ontario, will compete in both the two-man and four-man bobsleigh events. Before his transition to winter sport, he spent several seasons in the CFL, including time on the Roughriders’ practice roster in 2018, and played with the BC Lions and Montreal Alouettes during his seven-year football career.
The 2026 Games will be Murray-Lawrence’s first Olympics, and he joins Dearborn and other Canadian athletes in the highly competitive field of bobsleigh.
Canada’s Olympic Bobsleigh Team
Team Canada is strong in bobsleigh this year. For the men’s competitions, Canada is entering two sleds in both the two-man and four-man events. On the women’s side, Canada will have three sleds in two-woman bobsleigh and two entries in the women’s monobob, a single-athlete event.
Canada has a proud history in Olympic bobsleigh, winning 10 medals since 1964, including five golds. That success gives Dearborn and Murray-Lawrence big shoes to fill, but both athletes are ready for the challenge.
The Olympic bobsleigh schedule in Milano-Cortina 2026 runs throughout mid-to-late February, with events starting on Feb. 15 and concluding on Feb. 22.
