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Victor “Vic” Emery, bobsledder, businessman (born 28 June 1933 in Montreal, QC) and John Emery, bobsledder, plastic surgeon (born 4 January 1932 in Montreal, QC; died 21 February 2022). Brothers Vic and John Emery teamed with Doug Anakin and Peter Kirby at the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Olympic games (Austria) to provide Canada with a gold medal in bobsleigh, a sport few Canadians dared attempt because of cost and inadequate training facilities.
Career
An exceptional athlete in track, boxing and skiing, John Emery was introduced to bobsleigh by his brother Vic, who became interested in the sport while watching the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics. Soon after, in 1957, the brothers founded the Laurentian Bobsledding Association. They entered their first world championship in 1959, at Lake Placid, placing a disappointing 13th out of 16 competitors. Undeterred, they continued to compete and managed a fourth-place finish at the world level in 1962.
The brothers and Anakin and Kirby set their sights on the Olympics, but Canada chose not to send a team in 1960. By 1964 they had convinced the Canadian Olympic Committee to allow their entry to the 1964 Games at Innsbruck, and after several practices on "dry" runs in a school gym and the odd run at Lake Placid, they faced off against the powerhouse Italian and Austrian teams. Called Canadian Sled No. 1, their bobsleigh managed an Olympic record on the first run. In the final run, on a sled that had been broken but in a show of good sportsmanship had been fixed up with help from the Italian team, the four-man Canadian team managed to win the country's first medal in bobsledding on 7 February 1964, Canada's only gold medal that year. Since Anakin and John Emery were unavailable the following year, Vic Emery and Peter Kirby recruited newcomers Gerald Presley and Michael Young to compete with them for the 1965 world championship title in St. Moritz, Switzerland, which they won.
Retirement
After retiring from competition in 1967, Vic Emery moved to the United Kingdom and embarked on a successful career in business. John Emery pursued a career as a plastic surgeon, all the while maintaining an interest in athletics, competing in triathlons and running the Boston Marathon in 1979.
Honours
The Emery brothers' efforts paved the way for a national bobsleigh program in Canada and, in recognition, they were inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1964. In 1971 the four original teammates were inducted into Canada’s Olympic Hall of Fame.
