Susan HOLLOWAY

From a young age, Sue Holloway’s ambition was to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, a dream that she achieved in 1976, when she was only 21 years old. Her primary sport was canoeing and, having joined the national team in 1973, she had finished seventh in the K1-500 and the K2-500 at the 1974 World Championships, also failing to medal the following year. She was, however, the Canadian champion in the K1-500, the K2-500, and the K4-500 in 1975 and was selected to represent her nation at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Her first stop, however, was the Winter edition, where she placed 32nd in the 10 kilometer cross country race and 7th (alongside Joan Groothuysen, Sharon Firth, and Shirley Firth) in the 4 x 5 kilometer relay. At the Summer Games she was eliminated in the opening round of the K1-500 and finished eighth in the K2-500 with Anne Dodge. In the latter, Dodge was a last-minute replacement for the non-Olympian Karen Tippett, who had helped Holloway win four consecutive national championships in the K2-500.

Holloway focused on canoeing after 1976, with the intent of making the 1980 Olympic team, but her hopes were shattered when Canada joined the boycott of these Games (although, prior to this announcement, she had been selected as the nation’s flag bearer in the Opening Ceremony). Refusing to give up hope, she continued to train and made Canada’s delegation to the 1984 Summer Olympics, where she captured bronze in the K4-500, alongside Alexandra Barré, Lucie Guay, and Barb Olmsted, and silver in the K2-500 with Barré. Holloway retired shortly after the Games and, with degrees in teaching and physical education from the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and George Brown College, she took up coaching, sports management, human resources, and motivational speaking. She also spent many years working with the Canadian Olympic Committee and has been inducted into the Canadian Olympic (1986), Ottawa Sports (1986), and Brookfield High School Sports (2008) Halls of Fame.