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.

 

The 2010 Trailblazers

 
During the Vancouver Olympics, UBC was represented even beyond the athletes. From the medical team to an honorary mayoral role, here are two alumni who played an important role behind-the-scenes in both leading up to and during the Games.
 

Jack Taunton

 
One of North America's leading sports medicine doctors, UBC alumnus and Professor Emeritus for the Faculty of Medicine, Division of Sports Medicine, Jack Taunton played a critical role in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics as Chief Medical Officer. During the games, he supervised the training of over 2,700 volunteers, organized medical stations at event venues, and managed doping control programs.
 
The role is one in a string of essential and impactful Olympic and Paralympic roles Taunton has held throughout his career. He also worked at the Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 and Sydney 2000 Olympics prior to Vancouver 2010.
 
Beyond the Olympic Games, Taunton has played, and continues to play, a pivotal role in the running community here in BC, as he established the BMO Marathon and what was originally the Lions Gate Eight — now the Vancouver Sun Run — alongside his wife Cheryl, and Doug and Diane Clement.
 
Here on campus, Taunton established Vancouver's first sports medicine clinic with Doug Clement and Don McKenzie in 1979, the beginnings of the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre here on campus; he was the Centre's director for over 25 years. In recent years, he helped raise $2.5M to establish the School of Kinesiology's Chan Gunn Pavilion, home of the Allan McGavin Clinic today.
 
He also co-founded the UBC Grand Prix.
 
In terms of professional and national sports programs, Taunton was the team physician for the Vancouver Grizzlies and Field Hockey Canada. He has also played pivotal roles with various sports medicine organizations, including SportMed BC and Fortius Sport & Health.
 
For his work in the sports medicine field, Taunton is a recipient of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine, and the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine Medal of Service Award—among many others.
 
Taunton is at the forefront of sports medicine in Canada, and has played an important role in the lives of athletes from field hockey to basketball and everything in between—including the lives of those who participated in Vancouver 2010.
 

Doug Clement

 
Here on campus, and around Vancouver, this 1952 and 1956 Olympian is well-known as a track and field athlete, coach and advocate, and renowned sports medicine clinician, professor and innovator—he is also a third of UBC's Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Clinic founding trio alongside Jack Taunton and Don McKenzie: Doug Clement.
 
During Vancouver 2010, Clement played an important role in the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games as an honorary mayor of the Paralympic Village alongside his wife and fellow Olympian Diane Clement. Diane also played a crucial role in Vancouver 2010 as a member of the Bid Committee.
 
Clement's athletic career in track included trips to two Olympic and two British Empire Games. He has subsequently been selected to Canadian teams in coaching, general manager and medical staff roles for Olympic, Pan American, Commonwealth and World Championship games.
 
Clement attended UBC medical school, graduating with an MD in 1959. Throughout his time studying, Clement competed for the Thunderbird track and rugby teams.
 
Following graduation, Dr. Clement opened his own practice in Richmond, BC. There, he became a leading proponent of exercise contributing to the prevention of heart disease.
 
In 1964, and alongside his wife, Clement founded one of Canada's renowned track clubs: the Richmond Kajaks. There, he would coach athletes to world fame for 31 years.
 
Between 1980 and 1987, Clement even became the Thunderbirds middle distance track coach, coaching at least 10 athletes to Olympic status while teaching on campus as well. His work in track and field, both with the Kajaks and UBC, earned him the Longines Wittnauer Award for coaching one of the top three athletes in the world.
 
At that time, Clement and his wife Diana joined with Jack Taunton and his wife Cheryl to establish the Lions Gate Eight, more commonly known today as the Vancouver Sun Run.
 
Throughout his athletic pursuits, he continued to run his medical practice — building the foundation for sports medicine in Canada. Clement not only studied, practiced and researched the field, but also taught the specialty at SFU and UBC. He began his UBC teaching career in 1979 and gained his professorship in 1990.


 
In 1992, Clement was appointed to the medical staff of the Vancouver Canucks.
 
Doug Clement is a Sports Medicine Council Lifetime Achievement Award and Order of Canada Recipient. Here on campus, he is a UBC Sports Hall of Fame, BC Sports Hall of Fame and Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame inductee.