Curtis Allen MYDEN

A swimmer since the age of 7 and a member of the University of Calgary Swim Club at 17, Curtis Myden joined the Canadian national team in 1990 and competed in the 400 metres individual medley at that year’s World Championships. His next major stop was the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished 10th in the 400m IM and 25th in the 100m breaststroke. He won his first major international title, in the 400m IM, at the 1993 World Championships (short course), and then captured silver in the 200 and 400m IM at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. That year he was first named Swimming Canada’s Male Athlete of the Year, a distinction that he would also earn for the next three seasons, as well as in 1999 and 2000. He won his first major international titles, in the 200 and 400m IM, at the 1995 Pan American Games, in addition to bronze in the 200m breaststroke. He also captured silver medals in the 200 and 400m IM at that year’s World Championships (short course). He continued his streak at the 1996 Summer Olympics, winning bronze medals in the 200 and 400m IM. After a bronze medal in the 400m IM at the 1998 World Championships, he missed that year’s Commonwealth Games to complete his kinesiology degree at the University of Calgary.

After graduating in 1999, Myden returned to international competition and defended his Pan American Games titles. His final stop was the 2000 Summer Olympics, where he finished 10th in the 200m IM, but won bronze again in the 400m version, setting a new commonwealth record in the process. He retired from the sport in November 2002 and later entered medical school with the goal of being an orthopedic surgeon. He won 30 Canadian national titles during his career and was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2011.