Tag Archives: Olympic sports

“The Man of Bronze”: Olympic athlete Dr. Phil Edwards

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By Dalton Campbell

Dr. Philip Aron “Phil” Edwards earned five Olympic bronze medals in the 1920s and 1930s. It was the most career Olympic medals won by a Canadian athlete to that point and a Canadian record that would stand for 70 years.

Male athletes competing in a race.

Phil Edwards crossing the finish line, 1928 Olympics (a150990)

Nicknamed “The Man of Bronze,” his specialty was the middle distance. He finished on the podium at three Olympic Games: the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics (4 × 400 metre relay), the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics (800 m, 1500 m and 4 × 400 m relay) and the 1936 Berlin Olympics (800 m).

In 1936, he was the inaugural winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year.

Edwards was born in Guyana (then called British Guiana). As a young man, he moved to the United States, studying at New York University and competing in track. But his British citizenship prevented him from joining the U.S. Olympic team. Edwards was invited to join the Canadian Olympic team for the 1928 Games. In 1931, he moved to Canada and enrolled at McGill University, where he joined the track team.

A group of male athletes competing in a race.

Phil Edwards leading the field, 1932 Olympics (a150989)

Edwards was the first Black Canadian to win an Olympic medal. He was one of few Black Canadian Olympians in the first half of the 20th century, along with John Armstrong Howard, Sam Richardson and Ray Lewis, who won bronze with Edwards on the Canadian relay team at the 1932 Olympics.

Edwards had an extraordinary year and a half in 1935–36. He led McGill to a fifth consecutive Canadian university track title in the autumn of 1935. Before the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, he completed his medical studies, becoming one of the first Black graduates from the McGill medical program. The Globe and Mail reported that he was named co-captain and associate physician of the 1936 Canadian Olympic team. At year’s end, he won an unofficial triple crown when he was named Canadian athlete of the year, Canadian amateur athlete of the year and Canadian Press male athlete of the year.

Edwards won bronze in Berlin, where he ran in the face of open racial hostility from Germany’s Nazi government, which saw the Olympic Games as a propaganda showcase for its racist ideas. He was among the Black athletes who won medals, which included U.S. track stars Jesse Owens and Mackenzie “Mack” Robinson, older brother of Jackie Robinson.

On the return trip to Canada, the team was booked in a hotel in London, England. Edwards was refused a room, so the rest of the team decided to leave the hotel and find accommodations where their teammate would be accepted.

Dr. Edwards’ medical specialty was tropical and chest diseases. In 1937, he was appointed resident house surgeon at Barbados General Hospital. He served with the Canadian Army as a captain during the Second World War. After the war, he studied at McGill and practised at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal, where he would become head of the parasitology department. He worked with the Red Cross program in Congo in 1960.

Several male athletes competing in a race.

Phil Edwards, second from left, competing at the 1932 Olympics (a150988)

He managed British Guiana’s (now Guyana) Olympic team at the 1956 Olympics, held in Melbourne, Australia.

His record for most Olympic medals by a Canadian—five—was unbeaten for 70 years. In 2002, speed skater Marc Gagnon matched this achievement. In 2006, speed skater Cindy Klassen earned her sixth Olympic medal, breaking the record. In 2010, speed skater and cyclist Clara Hughes also earned a sixth medal.

Edwards died in 1971, just short of his 64th birthday. He was survived by his wife, three daughters and two siblings. The Phil A. Edwards Memorial Trophy, named in his honour, has been awarded annually to the top Canadian track athlete since 1972. In 1997, Dr. Phil Edwards was elected to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Additional resources

  • Photograph of Edwards celebrating with Canadian sprinter Percy Williams, 1928 (a150983)
  • Radio program featuring Edwards, “Trans-Canada Matinee” (ISN 382550)
  • Interview with Edwards and other Canadian athletes, “Crysdale and Company” (ISN 382973)
  • File on Edwards, Stanley Grizzle fonds (MIKAN 3728970)
  • Video of 1932 Olympics (ISN 385532, 331681)
  • Video of 1936 Olympics (ISN 191253, 300159)
  • Highlights of 1932 Olympics (ISN 447089)
  • Footage of 1932 and 1936 Olympics (ISN 300321)
  • Highlights and footage of 1936 Olympics (ISN 191253, 300159, 33542)
  • Rapid Ray: The Story of Ray Lewis, by John Cooper (OCLC 49047597)

Dalton Campbell is an archivist in the Science, Environment and Economy section of the Private Archives Division at Library and Archives Canada.

Anne Heggtveit: A good night’s sleep brings Olympic gold

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by Dalton Campbell

In 1960, Anne Heggtveit won Canada’s first Olympic gold in alpine skiing.

She was competing in the VIII Olympic Winter Games, in what is now Palisades Tahoe, California. In her first two races, the women’s giant slalom and the downhill, Anne had finished 12th. She said that the evening before the third race, the slalom, the other racers were out trying to familiarize themselves with the course, but she went back to her room to sleep. She thought that if she looked at the course that evening, she would become nervous and probably not sleep well. Her decision was the right one: she finished first, beating the silver medalist by more than 3 seconds, earning the gold in the slalom.

A young woman wearing a winter coat holding a medal in her left hand.

Anne Heggtveit with her Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing, 1960. The medal, at 55 mm in diameter, was one of the smallest awarded at the Winter Games. By comparison, since 2000, the smallest medal awarded at a Winter Olympics has been 85 mm in diameter. (a209759)

Following her extraordinary success at the Olympic Games, she surprised the sports world when she announced her retirement in March 1960. In an interview with the Globe and Mail later that year, she said that she would miss the sport and her friendships, but that she thought the years of preparation for the 1964 Olympics would be too much of an emotional strain. She discussed the importance of balancing confidence and recklessness when skiing. She also said, “When you stand at the top of that course, you can be scared stiff, you can feel you don’t care what happens to you, or you can suddenly feel the perfect mixture of emotions that can help you make a championship run.”

Her retirement, although a shock, was similar to that of her teammate Lucile Wheeler, who retired in 1958 after winning that season’s world slalom and downhill titles. In an interview in 2019 for The Canadian Encyclopedia, Anne described how Lucile had been a trailblazer, as one of the first Canadians to train in Europe. Anne learned from Lucile at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, where Lucile earned a bronze in the downhill and Anne had three top-30 finishes.

Anne’s 1960 Olympic results also gave her the Fédération internationale de ski (FIS) [International Ski Federation] world gold medal and the gold in Alpine combined. At the time, the FIS did not hold separate championships in Olympic years; instead, it awarded medals based on the Olympic results. This was her second FIS Alpine combined title. She also won in 1959.

In 1960, Anne received the Lou Marsh Award as Canadian athlete of the year and was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Her win was voted Canadian sports story of the year. Her medal was one of only four medals earned by the Canadian team.

Anne had an early start in skiing. Her father, who immigrated to Canada from Norway as a young man, was Canada’s cross-country ski champion in 1934, but was unable to raise money to go to the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Anne started skiing when she was two years of age and entered her first competition at five. From the age of 8, her goal was to win the Olympic gold medal.

She twice received the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada’s female athlete of the year (1959, 1960), was elected to the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1971), and was awarded the Order of Canada (1976). After her retirement, Anne married, started a family and taught skiing, among other pursuits. In 1988, she was an Olympic flag bearer at the Calgary Olympics.

Further research

Dalton Campbell is an archivist in the Science, Environment and Economy Section of the Private Archives Division.