A storied history: Vancouver 2010 marks one chapter in UBC's Olympic path
Across UBC varsity athletics decorated history, there are dozens and dozens of athletes that tie our campus to the Olympics. From rowing to skeleton, and everything in between, there are countless remarkable moments and success stories from over 90 years of Olympic Games.
To celebrate the 2010 Olympic anniversary, over the next two weeks on gothunderbirds.ca we are looking back on several of those moments and athletes, from the founders of our Olympic history to iconic Thunderbird Olympic achievements and memories.
OUR MOST DECORATED OLYMPIANS
Four Olympic medals. 16 Paralympic medals. Between these two athletes, they hold 20 pieces of UBC's hardware over 90 years of Olympic Games where Thunderbirds have been present.
Kathleen Heddle
(Heddle, fourth from right)
Having won four Olympic medals throughout her rowing career — three gold and one bronze — Heddle is UBC's most decorated athlete at the Olympic Games. Her career path through the sport is also heavily tied to her UBC Thunderbirds career, having made a switch of athletic intent from volleyball to rowing here on campus. Her name? Kathleen Heddle.
Raised in Vancouver, Heddle came to UBC in the early '80s with the hope of joining the Thunderbirds volleyball team. Following two years of training with the junior varsity roster from 1983 to 1985, she was told she would not reach the varsity volleyball program in her third year.
While registering for classes for the 1985/86 school year, rowing coach Drew Harrison spotted her in the crowd and picked her out as a possible candidate for his women's rowing team. Having spoken to Harrison, Heddle found the opportunity intriguing, and without volleyball in her sights anymore, she started rowing for the novice squad that season.
Heddle advanced to the varsity rowing team in 1986 and was considered among the best four rowers in the UBC program.
Her international career in the sport took off in 1987, with a win in the pairs event at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis. Four years later, she took home gold in the eights and pairs at the World Championships.
1992, her first Olympic year, would also see her first Olympic gold medals: one in the coxless pairs and one in the coxed eights. Four years later, she won her third and fourth Olympic medals: a bronze in the quadruple sculls, and a gold in the double sculls. Alongside her rowing partner Marnie McBean, Heddle makes up the first pair of Canadians to win three Olympic gold medals.
For her contributions to Canadian rowing, Heddle is a Canadian Sports Hall of Fame inductee, BC Sports Hall of Fame inductee and UBC Hall of Fame inductee.
Walter Wu
He is UBC's most decorated Paralympian and one of Canada's best swimmers, with 16 medals at the Paralympics throughout his career, including eight gold: Walter Wu.
Through the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, Wu was an iconic Paralympic team member.
An S13 classified swimmer, a classification for the visually impaired, Wu won his first medals at the 1996 Games in Atlanta: six gold medals (in the 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 1000m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley), alongside one bronze medal in the 50m freestyle. In the process, he broke two world records and set two Paralympic records. He was the most decorated Canadian that year, and helped Team Canada to a seventh place finish in the medal standings.
Four years later at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Wu took home two more gold in a five-medal haul: one gold in the 100m backstroke and the other in the 100m butterfly. In his final Paralympic year at the 2004 Games, Wu won gold in the 400m freestyle, alongside two silver medals.
Though he may not have competed in Vancouver 2010, Wu still played an important role as a local Olympic icon. On day 103 of the torch relay leading up to the Games, Wu was a torchbearer at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
He is an inductee in the Terry Fox Hall of Fame and was named the BC Disabled Athlete of the Year in 1994.
