Hearts of Gold: Olympics Book, Canadian Olympians, Olympic Athletes

Canadian Olympians (alphabetically)

Arnold Boldt (High Achiever)
Sport	High Jump, Long Jump
Birth	September 16, 1957; Osler, Saskatchewan
Accomplishments	Boldt won a gold medal in the high jump at the 1976 International Olympiad for the Physically Disabled. He also held several records and won numerous gold medals in the long jump.
Quote	“Probably no one-legged jumper will ever jump as high as Arnold Boldt. In fact, most two-legged jumpers will never jump as high as he did.” —Case study: Saskatchewan and International Sport

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Gaétan Boucher (Speed Skating’s Spokesperson)
Sport	Speed Skating
Birth	May 10, 1958; Quebec City, Quebec
Accomplishments	Boucher received a silver medal, the highest medal awarded to a Canadian at the 1980 Games. During the next season, he also won the samalog sprint, a competition which adds a skater’s two fastest 500-metre and 1,000-metre times to produce a combined score. Boucher was the first skater ever to attain a score below 150. He received a gold medal in the 500-metre at the World Championships.
Quote	“The day I broke it, I thought, this is it—the Olympics are next year. I looked at my foot and it was twisted in such a way ... cried a little bit.” —Boucher on breaking his ankle 10 months before the Olympic Games in 1984 “If I can do it [win gold], it will attract a lot of attention and that should give the sport a boost.” —Boucher at Sarajevo Olympic Games, 1984

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Canada 1: 1964 Bobsled Team (Thrill Seekers)
Sport	Bobsledding
Team Members	Vic Emery, Lamont Gordon, John Emery, Charles Rathged Jr., Peter Kirby, Chris Ondaatje, Gordon Currie, Dave Hobart, Doug Anakin
Accomplishments	They won a gold medal in the four-man competition at the Commonwealth Games. They won Canada’s only Olympic gold medal of the 1964 Winter Games and Canada’ first gold in bobsledding.
Quote	“[It was] the greatest upset in bobsledding history.” —U.S. Bobsledder Stan Benham on Canada 1

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Sharon Donnelly (Completing the Course)
Sport	Triathlon
Birth	July 29, 1967; Toronto, Ontario
Accomplishments	She was able to complete her first women’s Olympic triathlon competition because her mental toughness was equal to her physical ability. She earned her own personal victory by rising up against pain and despair to finish the race, despite a collision.
Quote	“I knew I was going down! All I could think of was getting back into the race.” —Sharon Donnelly
Excerpt	Download a PDF excerpt for Sharon Donnelly.

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Phil Edwards (Good as Gold)
Sport	Running
Birth	August 28, 1907; Fitzgerald Edwards, British Guyana
Accomplishments	Edwards was the first black man to receive a gold medal at the British Empire Games. He won three bronze medals in the 1932 Games in Los Angeles and was also selected as the captain of the Canadian track team. He was awarded the first-ever Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s outstanding athlete in 1936.
Quote	“His style of running, it was certainly effective in getting him almost to the gold. Not quite, but almost to the gold.” —Canadian Olympic Hurdler Jim Worrall

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Sylvie Fréchette (Tragedy, Injustice, Victory)
Sport	Synchronized Swimming
Birth	June 27, 1967; Montreal, Quebec
Accomplishments	She won silver as a soloist, silver for the team event and bronze in the duet at the 1989 World Cup. At the 1992 Olympics Games in Barcelona she won a silver medal in the synchronized swimming event. Due to a judging mistake at the Games, Sylvie was later awarded the gold medal. She also captured a silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Quote	“I had one way left to protest: to swim better than I had ever swum before ... to show the world who the real champion was.” —Sylvie Fréchette, gold at last

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George Hungerford & Roger Jackson (Unlikely Heroes)
Sport	Rowing
Birth	(George) January 2, 1944; Vancouver, British Columbia (Roger) January 14, 1942; Toronto, Ontario
Accomplishments	They received an unexpected gold medal win in the coxless pairs rowing event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. They were also awarded the Lou Marsh trophy in 1964 and were inducted to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame that same year.
Quote	“It seemed so unfair, I was about to achieve my dream ... and it was all being taken away.” —George Hungerford on developing mononucleosis less than three months before the 1964 Olympic Games

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Silken Laumann (Remarkable Recovery)
Sport	Rowing
Birth	November 14, 1964; Mississauga, Ontario
Accomplishments	Silken and her sister captured a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games in the double sculls event. Silken captured first place in both the 1991 and 1992 World Championship in the 2,000-metre single sculls event. She received the Thomas Keller Medal in 1999 for an outstanding career in rowing.
Quote	“I told the doctor who insisted that I wouldn’t be able to compete in Barcelona that I thought differently.” —Silken Laumann

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Larry Lemieux (Lifesaver)
Sport	Yachting
Birth	November 12, 1955; Edmonton, Alberta
Accomplishments	He was given a symbolic award for placing the life of a fellow sailor above race results. He won the gold medal at the 1991 Pan-American Games in Havana, Cuba.
Quote	“I saw the head of the second crew member bobbing in the water. He was far away from the boat ... I decided that I better do something.” —Larry Lemieux

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Sammy Luftspring (Sitting Out to Speak Out)
Sport	Boxing
Birth	He grew up in the Jewish ghetto of Toronto’s Kensington Market during the Prohibition-era 1920s.
Accomplishments	In 1936, Luftspring, one of Canada’s top-ranked amateur boxers, made one of the most important decisions of his career, to speak out again the evils he saw in Hitler’s Germany by boycotting the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. He turned professional late in 1936 and less than two years later became Canadian welterweight champion. He was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.
Quote	“Three years earlier, no one had really listened to me when I said the Nazis were bad guys. Now they were going to spend the next five-and-a-half years fighting them.” “I got into fighting because I discovered I could easily avoid being hit.” —Sammy Luftspring

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Irene MacDonald (Diving through the Pain)
Sport	Diving
Birth	November 22, 1933; Hamilton, Ontario
Accomplishments	MacDonald became the Canadian springboard diving champion. She won the title a total of 15 times before she retired. She won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games held in Vancouver.
Quote	“She’s a real competitor, determined to win at any cost.” —Jim Thompson, Irene MacDonald’s first coach

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Egerton Marcus (Broken Dream, Silver Lining)
Sport	Boxing
Birth	1965; Guyana
Accomplishments	He won the North American Boxing Federation’s light heavyweight belt in 1992 and ’93, despite continuous fracturing on his right hand. His professional record is 16 wins, 13 by knockout, four losses and one draw.
Quote	“Even with two broken hands, I’d have taken the fight. I came here to win the gold medal and couldn’t possibly give up the opportunity.” —Egerton Marcus

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The Matchless Six (Role Challengers & Record Breakers)
Sport	Track-and-field, High-jump, Sprinting
Teammates	Ethel Smith, Jean Thompson, Ethel Catherwood, Jane Bell, Bobbie Rosenfeld, Myrtle Cook
Accomplishments	From July 30 to August 5, 1928, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, six Canadians not only became the first women to compete in track-and-field at the Olympic Games, they also emerged as heroes by winning more medals—two gold, a silver and a bronze—and collecting more points than any other team.
Quote	“It didn’t make any difference if we were the first women or not. We were there to compete and win. That was the main thing.” —Sprinter Ethel Smith “Bobbie Rosenfeld’s sportsmanship in this event was one of the high spots of the games.” —Historian Ron Hotchkiss

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Alwyn Morris (Too Small to Compete?)
Sport	Kayaking
Birth	November 22, 1957; Kahnawake Reserve, Quebec
Accomplishments	Morris was initially told by canoeing coaches that he was too small to compete. Despite that discouragement he switched to kayaking and became a member of the Canadian national team in 1975. He received a bronze in the 500-metre K2 and he was Canada’s first-ever gold medal in kayaking for the 1,000-metre K2 race. His achievement remains the best Canadian performance in Olympic kayaking.
Quote	“Morris had learned from his grandfather that success in athletics required dedication, perseverance and sacrifice.” Morris helped build the foundations of hte Aboriginal Sports Circle (ASC), whose aim is to use sports as a means of “preventing many of the social ills facing Aboriginal peoples, and foster community healing” by creating “more accessible and equitable sport and recreation opportunities for Aboriginal peoples.” (www.aboriginalsportcircle.ca)

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Anne Ottenbrite (Accident Prone)
Sport	Swimming
Birth	May 22, 1966; Whitby, Ontario
Accomplishments	She won Canada’s first gold medal in female swimming in the 200-metre breaststroke at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She also won silver and bronze medals at the 1982 World Championships.
Quote	“All I could do was lie there and look at the ceiling and think ‘No Olympics,’ all that work for nothing.” —Anne Ottenbrite on dislocating her knee on May 21, 1984

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Chrissy Redden (Racing Flat Out)
Sport	Cycling
Birth	March 16, 1966; Campbellville, Ontario
Accomplishments	By 1999, she was ranked in the top ten in overall Union Cycliste Internationale world ranking. She has captured numerous World Cup medals and the 2002 gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.
Quote	“When I looked down to my front wheel, it confirmed one of my worst fears—I had a slow leak.” —Chrissy Redden
Except	Download a PDF excerpt profiling Chrissy Redden

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Jamie Salé & David Pelletier (Gold Performance)
Sport	Figure Skating
Birth	(Jamie) April 21, 1977; Red Deer, Alberta. (David) November 22, 1974; Sayabec, Quebec
Accomplishments	Their inspiring performance at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games ultimately led to Canada’s first gold medal in figure skating since the 1960s.
Quote	“We won the silver but had a gold medal performance.” —Jamie Salé

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Beckie Scott (Drug-Free)
Sport	Cross-country Skiing
Birth	August 1, 1974; Vermilion, Alberta
Accomplishments	She received her first medal in a World Cup event in the 1.5-kilometre sprint at Soldier Hollow, U.S. She received a bronze medal for the women’s 5-kilometre Free Pursuit at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Her medal was later upgraded to gold when Lazutina and Danilova were stripped of their medals for doping.
Quote	“I still believe that there are clean athletes who are successful and can reach the top, regardless of the doping that goes on. I have to.” —Beckie Scott, 2001

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William J. (Bill) Sherring (Long Shot)
Sport	Running (marathon)
Birth	September 10, 1877; Hamilton, Ontario
Accomplishments	He became one of Canada’s earliest Olympic heroes after winning a gold medal for the marathon at the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Quote	“[Running] seemed more natural to me than walking.” —Bill Sherring

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Elvis Stojko (Medal of Bravery)
Sport	Figure Skating
Birth	March 22, 1972; Richmond Hill, Ontario
Accomplishments	He won the 1988 Canadian Junior Championships when he was 16. He was awarded the Norton H. Crowe Award for Athlete of the Year by the Canadian Sports Council in 1994 and 1997 and the Lionel Conacher Award for Athlete of the Year by the Canadian Press in 1994.
Quote	“Pain is short-lived, but pride lasts a lifetime.” —Elvis Stojko, 1998

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Percy Williams (Trained to be the World’s Fastest Man)
Sport	Sprinting
Birth	May 10, 1908; Vancouver, British Columbia
Accomplishments	He was known as the World’s Fastest Man in 1928. He won the National Championships and two Olympic gold medals the following year.
Quote	“His training methods were way ahead of his time.” —Bill McNulty, Sports Historian, on Percy Williams’ coach Bob Granger “[Williams] credited Bob Granger with his every success.” —John Myer, Sportswriter

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