It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
The XXIV Winter Olympics begin this Friday, Feb. 4 in Beijing. While Huntsville doesn’t have any athletes competing this time*, it can count a number of Olympians, both summer and winter, among its former residents.
One was Abbott “Ab” Conway.
Conway was active in both gymnastics and track while a student at Ridley College in St. Catharines. Later, while a student at the University of Toronto, he was selected to represent Canada at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
He competed in the men’s 800-metre in the 1936 Berlin Olympics placing second in the first round and fifth in the semi-final in 1:55.9. His fifth-place finish did not qualify him for the final.
Conway’s grandfather built and ran the Anglo-Canadian Leather Company (the tannery) in Huntsville and his father later ran it. Following his retirement from active competition, Conway began working at the tannery. His career was interrupted in 1942 when he joined the Canadian Army and served in World War II, eventually reaching the rank of Captain. During his time in the army he competed in the Army Games placing third in the 800m. He retired from running following the Army Games.
Upon his return he continued to work at the tannery. He was made a member of the Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
Conway attended the 1936 Games with another Huntsvillian, Larry O’Connor, at that time a summer resident of the town and who later lived here year-round. O’Connor competed in the 110-metre high hurdles and placed sixth.
Hattie (Donaldson) Briggs was an Olympic speed skater. She moved to Huntsville in 1933 when she married Ted Briggs. She joined the first Canadian speed-skating team in the Olympics at Lake Placid in 1932 where she placed second in the 1,000-metre event. Women’s speed skating was a demonstration event in those Games, so no official medals were awarded. She would have competed in the 1936 Games as well, but when the German speed skater became ill, Adolf Hitler withdrew women’s speed skating from the program. She was inducted into the Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.
Jack McKenzie was from Whitby and represented Canada in ice hockey at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy as the team’s captain. The team won bronze that year. He later retired to Huntsville.
More recently, Dan Roycroft, formerly of Port Sydney and a member of Arrowhead Nordic, competed in cross-country skiing at the 2006 Torino Olympics. He now lives in Canmore.
Dara Howell won the first ever Olympic gold medal awarded in slopestyle skiing at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. She was inducted into the Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.
*Collin Cameron competed in the 2020 South Korea Paralympics, earning three bronze medals in sit skiing sprint and biathlon. Cameron now lives and trains in Canmore and is returning to Beijing next month.
*Trevor Kiers has been named to the Beijing Olympic men’s biathlon team as an alternate in the event an athlete became sick or injured, and will travel to China if the need arises. Kiers was a member of Arrowhead Nordic and now lives in Canmore.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
This post has been updated to include the Huntsville area’s more recent Olympians.
Photo courtesy of the Huntsville Sports Hall of Fame; details from hshf.ca, Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve, and olympics.com.
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Michael Lowe says
Mr. Conway also contributed his track skills to train track athletes in Huntsville. He had a group of about 10 high school athletes and he managed to greatly improve their skills to win track events throughout Ontario. One of them taking first place at the Pickering Relays over a team from Toronto consisting of top Canadian sprinters. I will always remember his enthusiasm and love of the sport.
John Garlick says
Bill Colvin a local lawyer and long time resident of Huntsville played on the same team as Jack Mackenzie and got a Bronze medal.It was the first time Canada,s Hockey team had lost the Gold Medal, and it was exactly 50 years later that Wayne Gretzky,s team regained the Gold medal for Canada
Bob McKnight another long time Huntsville resident ,also competed in the Olympic,s for Canadas Hockey team ,four years later than Bill Colvin, when it was held in the U S A