Linda Thom

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Linda Thom
medal table
Linda Thom at the 1984 Olympic Games
Linda Thom at the 1984 Olympic Games

Sport shooting

CanadaCanada Canada
Olympic games
gold Los Angeles 1984 Sports pistol 25 m
Pan American Games
bronze Caracas 1983 Air pistol 10 m
silver Caracas 1983 Sports pistol 25 m

Linda Mary Alice Thom , CM (* 30th December 1943 in Hamilton as Linda Mary Alice Malcolm ) is a former Canadian marksman .

successes

Linda Thom grew up in Ottawa and studied at Carleton University , which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1967 when she began shooting in the 1960s. Her father, who was also a marksman, first introduced her to shooting at the age of eight. With the pistol, she became Canadian champion for the first time in 1970 and won the title six times in a row by 1975. She also took part in several world championships , but without winning a medal. From 1972 to 1975 Thom lived with her husband in Paris , where she attended the “ Cordon bleu ” cooking school . Back in Canada, her sporting career rested for the time being while she ran a professional catering company and a cooking school.

When Thom learned in March 1982 that the pistol discipline for women was being added to the Olympic program for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , she made her sporting comeback. She won the Canadian Championship straight away and defended the title in 1983. At the Pan American Games in 1983 , she won the bronze medal with the air pistol and silver with the sports pistol. Thom qualified for the Olympic Games and, like Ruby Fox, initially reached 585 points and thus shared first place. In the jump-off for Olympic victory, Thom defeated Fox with a total of 198 points, thanks to a better last shot, who only shot 197 points, and thus received the first gold medal for a woman in an Olympic shooting competition. At the same time, it was the first ever Canadian gold medal at summer games since 1968 and the first by a woman since 1928 . Thom received numerous awards for this success. In January 1985 she received the Velma Springstead Trophy , which is awarded annually to Canada's most outstanding female athlete of the previous year. In the same year she was inducted into the Order of Canada and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame . In 1992 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Canadian Sports . A park in Ottawa is named after her.

In 1985 Thom won her last national championship before ending her career two years later due to an injury. She then worked in the cooking industry, but also in the real estate industry. In the 1995 elections to the Ontario Legislative Assembly , she stood as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the Ottawa-South constituency , but was defeated by the future Prime Minister of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Linda Thom Olympic Gold Medalist, Sport Pistol. In: carleton.ca. Carleton University , accessed August 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Linda Thom ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved August 30, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b Mark Kearney, Randy Ray: Whatever Happened To ...?: Catching Up with Canadian Icons . Dundurn, 2006, ISBN 978-1-55002-654-2 , pp. 168-169 .
  4. ^ Martin Cleary: Canadians win record 44 medals. Ottawa Citizen , August 13, 1984, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  5. ^ Thom athlete of year. The Gazette , January 17, 1985, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Mrs. Linda Thom, CM, BA In: gg.approx. Governor General of Canada , 1985, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Linda Thom Park, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In: waymarking.com. Groundspeak, Inc., accessed August 27, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Thom, Linda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thom, Linda Mary Alice (full name); Malcolm, Linda Mary Alice (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian sports shooter
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamilton , Canada