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The Four-Man Bobsleigh Team
Gold Medal, Bobsleigh (Innsbruck 1964)
The four-man bobsleigh team was the only Canadian gold medal winner at the 1964 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.
No Bobsleigh Facilities in Canada
It was not high-tech training equipment and endless financial support that brought these athletes to the podium. In the 1960s, Canada had neither a bobsleigh training facility nor an organization that supported the sport. Rather, it was the enthusiasm of two athletes - Vic Emery and Lamont Monty Gordon - that took the Canadian bobsleigh team to an Olympic gold medal.
A Tour of Europe
Several years earlier, Vic Emery was in St. Moritz, Switzerland while on a tour of Europe. He met some British bobsledders on their way to the 1956 Olympics Games in Cortina, Italy, and went with them to the Games as an observer. Emery returned to St. Moritz eager to take up the bobsleigh. Gordon joined him in St. Moritz soon after and, like Emery, he became enthralled with the sport.
When they returned to Canada, their enthusiasm for the bobsleigh piqued others' interest in the sport. In response, Emery and Gordon formed the Laurentian Bobsledding Club in Montréal and signed up members among their friends and colleagues. The membership fees became a successful--if painstakingly difficult--way to raise much-needed funds to build a competitive team.
Canadian Bobsledding Club Established
By 1960, the Laurentian club had changed its name to the Canadian Bobsledding Club and had raised enough money to purchase four bobsleighs. This was a remarkable feat in itself, considering that the club depended solely on membership fees for funding.
Of course, the newly formed 15-member team needed to practice. And, luckily, they were within driving distance of the only bobsleighing run in North America, in Lake Placid, New York.
Practice at the World Championships
From 1960, the team traveled to all of the world championships before the 1964 Olympic Winter Games. The experience gained from these competitions proved to be invaluable, and the team slowly inched ahead in the competitive standings.
In 1962, the club became officially affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union, which both bolstered the club's visibility and made it possible for the team to represent Canada in the 1964 Olympic Winter Games. Nothing could hold them back now.
Olympic Gold
Shortly before the Games opened in Innsbruck, the members of the team and their manager traveled to Europe to practice. The team, which had suffered many injuries in the course of previous competitions, experienced no setbacks during these practice runs. The many years of passion, practice and sheer grit paid off when the four-man Canadian team, including Vic and John Emery, Peter Kirby, and Douglas Anakin, finished ahead of all the European experts and brought home the gold medal for Canada.
