Posted: October 20, 2005

Athletics: Gilbert sprints into Ottawa's Hall

By Martin Cleary , The Ottawa Citizen

Olympic gold medallist inducted with Alie, Domonkos, Parker, Rae, Booth

The images are captivating, showing strength, power, happiness and teamwork, as well as life-balancing doses of dejection, sadness and disappointment.

There's Glenroy Gilbert enjoying a success sandwich in the mid-1990s -- surprising first-place finishes in the men's 4x100-metre relay at the 1995 and 1997 world track and field championships wrapped around a stunning gold-medal performance at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. In 1995, he shocked the country by winning the men's 100-metre gold at the Pan Am Games.

And there's the five-time Olympian again, wishing he could recall some difficult times -- a relay disqualification when the team dropped the baton at the 1992 Olympics, the death of a brother and a brief marriage that wasn't meant to be.

The latest snapshot of one of Canada's greatest Olympians was taken last night, when the humble, upbeat and thankful Gilbert was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.

He shared the honour with many family members, including daughter Ella-Grace, who, as only a young girl can do, was at her dad's side most of the night and then stole the show on stage before his acceptance speech.

The ceremony, which was held at the Civic Centre, also honoured five other Ottawa and area sports icons: Three-time world sailboard champion and triple Olympian Caroll-Ann Alie, 10-time Canadian table tennis singles champion and Seoul Olympian Mariann Domonkos, and builders Ken Parker, a road racing pioneer and amateur sport corporate sponsor, and Al Rae, an international basketball referee and administrator, and Don Booth, a breeder, owner and trainer in the standardbred horse racing industry.

The Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, which is located at the Corel Centre, saw its membership increase to 164 athletes, 48 builders and 12 teams.

As Gilbert reflected on his career, which took him to Summer Olympics in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000, and the 1994 Winter Olympics in bobsleigh, he singled out the behind-the-scenes people who guided him in his athletic journey as well as his mother, Valma, the backbone of his life.

"I have been blessed with very influential people in my travels," said Gilbert, the sprint and relay event leader for Athletics Canada. "I have been guided well. My first membership to the Ottawa Lions (Track and Field Club) was paid for by my school principal."

When principal Glenn Munro saw Gilbert, a Grade 7 student, running around the school yard at Pinecrest Public School, he figured the young man had talent as a sprinter.

Munro knew the Gilbert family -- Valma was a single mom raising five children -- couldn't afford the annual membership. So Munro reached into his own pocket and paid Gilbert's $60 annual membership fee for his first two years. He covered the fee for the next two years by receiving money from a bursary fund managed by the former Ottawa Board of Education.

"The reason I was a Lion wasn't because of my own choosing to run," Gilbert said. "Mr. Munro told me there's a membership for me; go enjoy it."

Munro was thrilled Gilbert trained twice a week with the Lions and it also had a positive effect on his academics.

"It turned him around and gave him a focus in life," Munro said.

When he attended Laurentian High School, athletic director Kent Smith was a caring and motivating coach.

Smith knew Gilbert had talent, and he wanted to take him as far as he possibly could in five years. One of his methods was to offer incentives.

"He made me challenge myself and offered all kinds of incentives for me," Gilbert recalled. "It (sprinting and long jump) came relatively easy at the time, but he didn't coach me just to get by -- he wanted me to put in an all-out effort."

Sometimes that included dangling carrots, or in this case Big Macs.

"Sometimes we (Laurentian track and field athletes) would go on long trips. I loved McDonald's. So he said for every gold medal, he would get me a Big Mac. At the Queen's (University) meet, I won four events."

Smith reached into his pocket and bought him four Big Macs, which certainly wasn't one of the food groups that took him to international success seven years later.

Craig Taylor was Gilbert's first full-time coach with the Lions, but he was more than just a coach.

"I wouldn't have been on the 1988 Olympic team without his conviction," Gilbert said. "He'd wake me up every morning for practice and we'd sweat it out in the gym. There was just him and me. He'd take me to the gym or the track and got me motivated to make the (Olympic) team.

Taylor believed in Gilbert so much, he loaned him his car on occasion to go to his training venues.

At the 1988 Canadian track and field championships at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, which was his home track, he long jumped a wind-aided 8.11 metres and a legal 8.01 metres to qualify for his first Olympics, which were held in Seoul, South Korea. The Canadian Olympic standard was eight metres.

Gilbert also was coached by Andy McInnis, who eventually pointed him to American sprint coach Dan Pfaff.

"He showed me track is important, but I needed to balance it with an education," said Gilbert, who was with Pfaff for nine years.

While Munro, Smith, Taylor, McInnis, Pfaff and the Lions played significant roles in Gilbert's development as a sprinter/long jumper, his mother served as his everyday personal coach.

"My drive and determination comes from my mom. She's my rock and foundation," said Gilbert, who added his award should go to his mom.

As an athlete, Gilbert reached a fitness level that allowed him to be an international success, but he didn't achieve everything on his wish list.

If there was one disappointment, it would be not running under 10 seconds in the 100 metres. His best time was a 10.10, when he placed fifth at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. He is one of the few athletes in the world to win gold in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games and world championships.

"I would have loved to run under 10 seconds. I was very capable, but it didn't happen. But there were other avenues open.

"If I bogged myself down on the individual race, I wouldn't have taken the opportunity to succeed as part of the relay team."

Losing focus during the 100-metre race and "life around me" hindered him from running under 10 seconds.

"I had a lot of adversity at various times," he said.

Now, Gilbert is on the other side of the athlete-coach relationship.

"I love coaching and interacting with the athletes, seeing them set and achieve goals," he said. "The way Mr. Munro treated me is how I want to give back (to track and field)."

© The Ottawa Citizen 2005

This story originally appeared in the Ottawa Citizen and is reprinted with permission