Was Pierre Lueders kicked off Canada’s bobsled team?

You see it all the time. Athletes who can’t let go of the sport they once ruled. Whether it’s their passion and desire, or just the fame and fortune, superstars such as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Brett Favre have always had trouble leaving on top.

Canadian bobsledder Pierre Lueders is no exception. Lueders is, of course, the most decorated slider in Canadian history, winning Olympic gold in Nagano in ‘98, then a silver medal in Turin in 2006.

After Lueders finished a disappointing 5th in both the two-man and four-man bobsled events in Vancouver, he assumed people would suggest he retire, but never imagined he’d be forced to.

“Bobsleigh Canada told me to take a hike,” said Lueders. “They said I was too old and too slow, but I’m going to show them… I’m going to show everybody.”

Lueders comments come after Reid Morrison, the president of Bobsleigh Canada, informed the 39-year-old that his fifth Olympics would be his last.

“We just felt with the speed of these tracks now, the sport’s too dangerous for a man his age,” said Morrison. “You all saw the crashes at the Olympics.”

After hearing the bad news, Lueders immediately sought out teammate Jesse Lumsden, hoping the former CFL running-back could convince Morrison to change his mind. Little did he know the whole thing was Lumsden’s idea. Upon arriving at the team’s training headquarters in Calgary, Lueders couldn’t help but notice his former brakeman tearing down the track with young, bobsledding-hotshot Rip Renson.

“Yeah, I definitely had a few choice words for him,” said the famously intense, unrelenting competitor. “I trained him, taught him everything he knows, and this is how he repays me? Where’s the loyalty?”

While disappointed for her husband, Lueders’ wife Sandra was hoping he’d finally put bobsledding behind him and join the family rubber business.

“I thought he could spend more time with Zoe and Maya (his two daughters), but we hardly see him anymore,” said Sandra. “Everyday he’s out on the hill behind our house tobogganing. When he finally comes home it’s dark, his dinner is cold and the kids have gone to bed.”

Now unable to hold back her tears, she adds that her husband’s temper has only gotten worse since being banned from Canada’s Olympic Park.

“I’m sure you saw during the Olympics when he yelled at that poor brown reporter Farhan Lalji,” said Sandra. “Well, you should see him with the kids on the hill. He yells at anyone who gets in his line, parents are complaining.”

Still, dedicated and focused as ever, Lueders keeps tobogganing every day, hoping to get one more shot at Olympic glory.

That opportunity looked to come Wednesday night when Lumsden approached Lueders at a local bar near his Edmonton home. Hoping to goad the champ into one final race, Lumsden was taken off guard when Lueders suggested a street fight.

According to eyewitness accounts, the 27-year-old accepted, knocking Lueders to the ground multiple times before reactivating an old shoulder injury. With the whole neighbourhood cheering him on, Lueders quickly took advantage, unleashing a fury of haymakers that sent Lumsden crashing into the grill of a bus.

While it wasn’t how the great Canadian bobsledding champ expected to end his career, at least he went out on top.

(Lueders VI, coming to theatres near you in 2014)