Ex-NFLer Luke Willson pursues Olympic dream with move from gridiron to velodrome

Compelled by a baseball experience, former NFLer Luke Willson hopes to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics in track cycling.

Willson, now 33, played first base and hit cleanup — behind No. 3 batter Brett Lawrie, the former Blue Jay — at the 2008 U-18 baseball world championship in Edmonton, helping Canada to a sixth-place finish.

"To be in Edmonton, wearing Canada across your chest and playing against the best 18-and-under kids from planet Earth was a special experience," Willson told CBC Sports. "To be able to be like, OK, we're at the Olympics, I've got Canada across my chest and I'm ripping this bike around the velodrome, I think that'd be something really cool."

Willson, who played seven NFL seasons mostly with the Seattle Seahawks as a tight end, retired in August 2021 due to health issues.

He returned to his parents at home in LaSalle, Ont., where he discovered that they enjoy biking around the community for fun, and thought he'd give it a try.

"It was exhilarating in a weird way," he said. "I'm going for these three-hour rides. I'm seeing all sorts of nature, avoiding things on the road, biking around feeling air, getting a little lighter, not lifting weights. It was kind of a great combo."

Soon enough, Willson's hobby "snowballed" into passion. 

"I was like, holy smokes, I'm really loving this. Like, I'm gonna give it a shot."

WATCH | Willson discusses newfound passion for cycling:

Willson now trains with fellow Canadian Travis Smith in Los Angeles, where he says the focus is more on technique than anything else. If he gets fast enough, he hopes to move to the velodrome in Milton, Ont., where the Canadian team is based.

Last summer, Willson served as a coach on CBC's Canada's Ultimate Challenge, the