John Emery (bobsledder)

John Emery (born January 4, 1932 in Montreal ) is a former Canadian bobsleigh driver . He became Olympic champion in the four-man bobsleigh in 1964. His younger brother Victor Emery was also a bobsleigh driver.

Career

Emery studied medicine, he was also an excellent athlete, boxer and ski racer. Encouraged by his brother, who had watched the Olympic bobsleigh races in Cortina d'Ampezzo as a spectator in 1956 , he began bobsleigh in 1957 and was a co-founder of the Laurentian Bobsleigh Association . In 1959, the Emerys first took part in world championships, with the Italian bobsleigh driver Eugenio Monti acting as their mentor. The training conditions were extremely unfavorable: the Canadian Olympic Committee refused to give any support, so that the Canadians had to practice pushing in sports halls and rarely had the opportunity to practice runs on the bobsled run in Lake Placid .

Before the Olympic Winter Games in 1964 , the Austrians and Italians were big favorites. The Canadian four-man bobsleigh team, consisting of the Emery brothers, Peter Kirby and Douglas Anakin , was only able to train four times on the Igls Olympic bobsleigh track , in contrast to numerous competitors who had arrived weeks earlier. Completely surprisingly, the Canadians undercut the track record in the first run, held their ground at the top and won the gold medal. Together with Gordon Currie , John Emery also competed in the two-man bobsleigh and finished eleventh.

Emery then ended his sports career, settled in San Francisco and became a well-known plastic surgeon . He continued to be active in sports. In 1979 he took part in the Boston Marathon and in 1980 the Ironman Hawaii .

Web links

• John Emery in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Entry into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame