Forty years ago today, on July 30, 1976, John Wood wrote Canadian Sport history by winning the Silver Medal in the C-1 500 m sprint event at the Montreal Olympics.
It was a defining moment for Canadian Canoeing which, since then and to this day, continues to build on John’s legacy by regularly fielding competitive athletes at major Canoeing competitions around the world.
On this day in 1976, I was driving enroute to Lady Evelyn Lake in Northern Ontario when, just south of North Bay, the regular CBC Radio program was interrupted by a news flash: Lloyd Robertson came on the air and enthusiastically announced that “John Wood had just won the Silver Medal in ROWING ... !“
Yes, that blooper accurately reflected many Canadians’ lack of knowledge of Amateur Sports in general, and Canadian Canoeing in particular, due in large part to the media’s lack of interest at that time in covering and supporting Amateur Sports in Canada.
This perception was reinforced by my experience in producing the film “PADDLES UP!” which I started shooting in early 1976.
Some of us familiar with John’s consistent and respectable top-10 finishes in major international competitions for several preceding years were convinced that he was indeed a “world-class” paddler, which was the prime incentive for making a motivational-instructional film on Canadian Canoeing featuring John Wood.
To this end, John and his coach, Mac Hickox, agreed to my filming from the coach boat and covering some of John’s training regime, as long as it didn’t interfere with the program.
As an aspiring independent filmmaker without a track record, however, it was virtually impossible to raise the funds required to make a 16mm film about a little-known sport featuring an unknown athlete. Despite numerous inquiries, no national, provincial or community sports body had any interest in getting involved.
But with John training hard and in the prime of his athletic potential in early 1976, the opportunity was not to be missed, so I started filming on my own dime.
By the time the Montreal Olympic Games were about to start, there were some 5,000 feet of film in the can, enough to cut together a nice “athlete profile” of John, which the CBC had produced on a number of other Canadian athletes participating in the games.
But, despite numerous letters and calls to CBC and other television sports broadcasters, no one was interested in using our exclusive footage of a "world-class" Canadian Canoeist training in preparation for the Olympics.
I nearly drove into the ditch upon hearing Lloyd Robertson’s newsflash of John Wood winning the Silver Medal in “Rowing” because, despite the Canadian Media’s lack of familiarity and coverage in support of Canoeing, I knew that John had firmly established his credentials as a world-class athlete by his Silver Medal finish.
Miraculously, a few weeks after the 1976 Montreal Olympics, we had the commitment from several Provincial and National sports organizations to fund the completion of PADDLES UP! ... thanks to John.
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