Ottawa has a long and proud sport tradition, and in this ongoing series, we will present highlight moments and figures from our local sport history. The Ottawa Sport History Highlight series is presented by the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, which has welcomed almost 300 inductees dating back to its establishment in 1968. Find out more at OttawaSportHall.ca.
By Ottawa Sports Pages, for Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame
Some things change with time, and some things never change.
Just ask Ottawa Sport Hall of Famer and four-time Canadian Olympic team member Sue Holloway.
Here’s a look at some striking similarities and differences between when she competed in the Winter Olympic Games 48 years ago and the present day.
CHANGE: WINTER WEATHER
The cross-country skier from Ottawa raced for Canada in front of an estimated crowd of 25,000 in the women’s team relay event at the 1976 Games in Austria.
This year on the same day as her Olympic debut, it was 14°C in Innsbruck.
Rising winter temperatures have created a major headache for Holloway and other organizers behind the upcoming Nordiq Canada Ski Nationals. They’ve had to make, preserve and move snow in order to pull off the March Break event at Nakkertok Nordic in Cantley, QC.
CHANGE: SPORT SEASON
Once the season changed, so did Holloway’s sports pursuit. The member of the Ottawa, Canada and Canadian Olympic halls of fame became the first woman to compete in both the Winter and Summer Olympics in the same year when she took to the water at the Montreal Olympic Basin at age 20.
Nordic skiing was Holloway’s first sporting love, but she once said she took up paddling because she hated summer roller skate training for cross-country skiing so much. It also helped that the Rideau Canoe Club was just down the road from home.
Holloway wound up making three Canadian Summer Olympic teams and went on to win a pair of kayak medals in her final Games appearance at Los Angeles 1984, earning silver in the K-2 women’s 500 metres and bronze in the K-4.
DOESN’T CHANGE: PROBLEMS WITH RUSSIA
There are some moments from Holloway’s athletic career that will sound all too familiar to a modern audience.
In Innsbruck, she and her Canadian relay teammates wound up placing seventh, well back of the podium. Taking gold was Russia, featuring an athlete who’d lost her individual medal a week earlier for flunking a doping test (for ephedrine) but was allowed back in for the team event.
Four years later, Holloway had been named Canada’s flag bearer for the 1980 Summer Games Opening Ceremony, but Canada was one of several nations to boycott the Moscow Olympics over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“It’s like someone kicking me in the knees. It was devastating,” Holloway told Ottawa Citizen reporter Martin Cleary in 1984. “I couldn’t believe someone could do that to you. There’s no recourse. You feel so helpless and victimized.”
DOESN’T CHANGE: SUE’S LOVE OF SPORT
One thing that’s persisted through all the years is Holloway’s love and dedication to sport.
In an interview with the Citizen‘s Tom Casey in the lead-up to the Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics, she lamented the likelihood that she’d have to pick one of her two top sports to focus on in the future.
“No matter which I choose, I hope to continue racing in both,” said Holloway, who’s indeed continued competing in masters skiing and dragonboat events into her 60s.
“You meet so many great people on the racing circuit and I love meeting new people,” added the athlete who was featured in the Citizen 36 times in 1976, when the newspaper business was thriving.
The last mention of the year came when it was announced that Holloway would be honorary chair of the 16-sport, 2,000-athlete 1977 Eastern Ontario Winter Games.
Volunteerism has been an ongoing theme in Holloway’s life. She’s served as volunteer chair of countless events and initiatives – from fundraising for the Canadian Olympic Foundation, to keeping women active in physical activity, to dolling out stew to keep the workforce going at local ski meets.
The recipient of the Ottawa Sports Awards’ 2016 Mayor’s Cup for Outstanding Contribution to Sport in Ottawa has held just about every volunteer role under the sun with many local sports organizations, including the Rideau Canoe Club and Nakkertok Nordic, where she coaches the U12 program.
At the upcoming nationals, she’ll greet and check-in the large volunteer contingent for the Évènements Nordiques Gatineau Nordic Events organization.
“I love the people, the relationships and experiences you share,” Holloway reflected in a Fifty-Five Plus magazine feature by Cleary in 2021. “The number one benefit is seeing friends. I have an amazing group of people and I’m still close to most of them. Friendships made me come out and stay.”
Learn more about our local sport history on the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame’s website at OttawaSportHall.ca.