HIGH ACHIEVERS: Canada’s Greatest Summer Olympian? Glenroy Gilbert certainly has all the credentials

By Martin Cleary

The Canadian Olympic Committee has proudly sent thousands of talented athletes and coaches to 27 Summer Games since 1900. The best of that honoured group has returned home with 73 gold, 112 silver and 146 bronze medals plus infinite memories.

The Paris Summer Olympics, which are scheduled to open officially on Friday, will be the 28th opportunity for Canada’s elite athletes to put forward their best efforts under the guidance of world-class coaches.

Canada has averaged more than a dozen medals for each time it has attended a Summer Games, but who would you consider the country’s Greatest Summer Olympian?

Would it be an athlete like swimmer Penny Oleksiak with one gold, two silver and four bronze medals, athletics sprinter Andre De Grasse with one gold, one silver and four bronze medals or five-time medallists Lesley Thompson-Willie with one gold, three silver and one bronze in rowing or middle-distance runner Phil Edwards with five bronze in athletics.

Would it be a coach like swimming’s Deryk Snelling, who attended seven Olympics with multiple medallists including Mark Tewksbury and Bruce Robertson of Manotick, rowing’s Al Morrow, a six-time Olympic head coach with four gold, one silver and three bronze medals from his athletes, or current diving coach Yihua Li, who has guided the women’s program to two silver and five bronze medals in six Olympics since 2000.

Or would it be that rare person who has excelled as an Olympic medal-winning athlete, taken a major leadership coaching role in the same sport and guided Canadian athletes to multiple Olympic medals, and who hasn’t missed a Summer Games since 1988?

Ottawa’s Glenroy Gilbert just might be Canada’s Greatest Summer Olympian. If not, he should definitely be in the final round for that conversation.

The Paris Olympics will be the 11th for Gilbert, whether as an athlete or a coach, and his 10th consecutive Summer Games.

Gilbert’s 11 Olympic appearances is believed to be a national record, and if so, it will be matched in Paris by equestrian’s Ian Millar of Perth. Millar, who holds the record for the most Olympic appearances by an athlete at 10, will attend his 11th Summer Games in Paris as Canada’s chef d’équipe for jumping.

A former accomplished Laurentian High School and Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club sprinter and long jumper, Gilbert competed in four Summer Olympics as an athlete – 1988 in Seoul for long jump (22nd), 1992 in Barcelona for the men’s 4×100-metre relay (did not finish, semifinal), 1996 in Atlanta for men’s 4×100-metre relay (gold medal) and for the 100 metres (22nd), and 2000 in Sydney for men’s 4×100-metre relay (11th).

His fifth Olympic appearance as an athlete came at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, when he was part of Chris Lori’s bobsleigh crew that was 11th in the four-man and 15th in the two-man.

After Gilbert retired as an athlete, he joined Athletics Canada in 2002 and was the lead speed and power coach for sprints and hurdles at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics before becoming the team’s head coach for the 2020 and 2024 Games.

As an athlete, Gilbert, who also was a men’s 4×100-metre relay gold medallist at the 1995 and 1997 world championships, earned one Olympic medal, but it was the elusive gold.

As a coach, he was a contributor to many Canadian medals over the past five Summer Olympics. When he was an event coach, his athletes won four of the five medals Canada’s athletics athletes earned at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Games.

Andre De Grasse was responsible for three medals at the 2016 Olympics (silver in the 200 metres and bronze in the 100 metres and the 4×100-metre relay) and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep had one (bronze in women’s 100-metre hurdles).

Between the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, Gilbert lost his job shortly after the Canadian men’s 4×100-metre relay team won the bronze medal at the 2013 world championships in Moscow. He didn’t want to make the requested move to Toronto for his job for family reasons.

Gilbert joined the Canadian Paralympic Committee in 2014 as its senior co-ordinator for high performance and games enhancement. He attended one world para athletics championships, but didn’t attend a Paralympics as he had returned to Athletics Canada, which hired him back as the speed event coach and then named him its head coach in 2017.

As the national head coach at the Olympics, Gilbert guided his team to its best-ever performance at the Tokyo Games three years ago with six medals (two gold, two silver and two bronze).

“Some days, I see myself as very fortunate. Going to an Olympics is an achievement whether as an athlete or a coach. It’s a blessing. It’s not lost on me as to how fortunate I am. I’m grateful,” Gilbert, 55, said in a recent phone interview about his Olympic journey, which has covered five decades.

Gilbert has the rare opportunity to see the Olympics from two different perspectives and they’re both challenging.

“As an athlete, you dream about it, you dream about actually doing something that’s impressive,” he added. “As a coach, you do impact the athletes, who make it happen by bringing to bear all they have learned in practice.”

Athletes carry heavy loads on their shoulders as they try to perform on demand for a result that can be celebrated by themselves and their coaches.

“As a coach, I felt my job is to be there (for the athlete) to support, to guide and to navigate. Get them through the pitfalls,” Gilbert continued.

“You start that one to two years before the Olympics. Get the athletes to understand the challenges. It has nothing to do with their event, but with the distractions around every Olympics. You plan accordingly for noise, weather and hydration with all kinds of strategies.”

High-performance athletes have lived through the highs and lows of sport and Gilbert is no different.

“I feel I ran the gauntlet,” he admitted.

There was no better feeling than winning the Olympic men’s 4×100-metre relay gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. There was no worse feeling than being the sprinter missing a baton exchange and having the team disqualified, which happened in the semifinals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

“1996 was definitely a highlight because we won,” Gilbert said, recalling that blazing race half a lifetime ago, when the Canadian team ran a national-record 37.69 seconds. “Winning the Olympic medal the way we did was remarkable. We didn’t know we could do it. We struggled in the rounds, but put it together in the final.”

Canada was almost disqualified in the first round, when Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey had difficulty on the final exchange. Still shaking from the first round, Canada was cautious in the semifinals, but advanced to the final, where “we opened it up,” according to Gilbert, and zipped to the gold.

While Gilbert competed in two individual events in his Olympic career, the men’s 4×100-metre relay was his main focus.

“I look back at the Olympics and there was a lot of good and parts not good,” he reflected. “In the individual events, I should have been better. But people relied on me (in the relay). I worked hard not to disappoint.”

When it came to running the second leg of the relay, Gilbert was the best in the world. At the 1996 Olympics, he posted the fastest time for his on-the-fly 100 metres at 9.02 seconds.

“It was quick, but since then I think some have run faster,” he added.

As a coach, he also has seen his career run the gauntlet.

“I’ve had moments I’ve done good things and felt good. Other times, I didn’t feel good and had to better,” he said.

“At times, I struggled to build the relay team to get more medals and to get the athletes to feel at the same level that we can compete with the USA and Jamaica. To get that mentality has taken a while. We are all in lock step now with our system.”

Despite being bronze medallists for a few minutes at the 2012 Olympics before losing it because a runner was disqualified for stepping on a lane line, life balanced out for the athletics program at the 2016 Olympics. When the United States made an improper first exchange, it led to the country’s disqualification and allowed Canada to move up to third place for the bronze from fourth place.

Since that three-medal Olympics in 2016, Canada doubled its production at the Tokyo Games with six. Prospects are good for Paris for an equal or better effort with athletes like hammer throwers Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg, shot putter Sarah Mitton, sprinter De Grasse, 800-metre runner Marco Arop, decathlete Damian Warner, race walker Evan Dunfee and the men’s 4×100-metre and women’s 4×400-metre relay teams.

“When I started, we were lucky to win one medal,” Gilbert said. “I see a shift in the athletes and a shift in the coaching to inspire the athletes to go after more.”

Shortly after winning the men’s 4×100-metre relay gold medal, Gibert began thinking about his future and coaching was at the top of the list. Alex Gardiner, who was the Athletics Canada head coach during Gilbert’s time on the national team, played a major role.

“He encouraged me. He mentored me. He believed in me far before I believed. He saw it in my future. There was something there. Mentors are important,” Gilbert explained.

Happy and comfortable being a single dad with daughters Ella Grace, 20, and Sadie, 17, busy with athletics and academics, Gilbert doesn’t see a finish line for his coaching career just yet.

“I’m not looking down the track and I’m not ready to retire,” he said firmly. “Coaching is a profession that you can do till whatever age, if someone is willing to pay you.”

In the weeks leading up to the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Ottawa Sports Pages will be profiling participating local athletes. From July 24-Aug. 11, we’ll be providing daily Ottawa at the Olympics coverage via our free email newsletter. Sign up below to follow along!

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