Kevin NEUFELD

Kevin Neufeld took up rowing as a high school student and, by 1983, was a member of the Canadian national team. He first represented his country at that year’s World Championships, where he finished eighth in the coxed eights event at the World Championships alongside Stephen Beatty, Dean Crawford, Grant Main, Brian McMahon, Jim Relle, Pat Turner, Tim Turner, and the non-Olympian Rob Gibson. With Mark Evans, Mike Evans, Blair Horn, and Paul Steele in place of Beatty, Gibson, Relle, and Tim Turner, the crew took gold in the event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, finishing just over 0.4 seconds ahead of the Americans. Neufeld then switched to the coxless fours, finishing fifth and fourth at the 1985 and 1986 World Championships respectively, before reaching the top of the podium again at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, with Main, Steele, and Pat Turner. The quartet returned to the men’s eights for the 1987 World Championships and placed fifth alongside McMahon, Andy Crosby, Dave Ross, Don Telfer, and John Wallace. They exchanged Ross and Turner for Jason Dorland and Jamie Schaffer at the 1988 Summer Olympics, but were unable to defend their crown, ending up in sixth place. Neufeld retired after the Games, graduating with a degree from the University of Victoria in human performance, and began working in sales and performance development. He has been inducted, along with the rest of his gold medal-winning crew, into the British Columbia Sports (1985) and Canadian Olympic (2003) Halls of Fame, in addition to an individual selection for the Saint Catharines Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.