Vic Emery
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June 28, 1933 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
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Victor Emery (born June 28, 1933) is a Canadian athlete and businessman. Emery was born in Montreal, Quebec. He is a gold medalist in the four man bobsleigh pilot from the 1964 Olympic Winter Games, as well as the 1965 World Championships.
Involved in diverse athletics from a young age, Emery, was a "Mustang" in swimming, wrestling and skiing at the University of Western Ontario. He later graduated with an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Emery attempted to ski across the mountains from St. Moritz to Cortina in order to watch the 1956 Winter Olympics. However there was little snow near Merano. By chance, the British Bobsleigh Team gave him a lift the rest of the way. In spite of that long ride on a bobsleigh seat in an open truck at -20, this is where his interest in the bob sport was inspired.
He became a "surrogate" Spaniard on the Marquis de Portago's bob team in St Moritz's Swiss Meisterschaft, which followed the Olympics.
Portago subsequently encouraged Emery to try his hand at piloting a bobsleigh by loaning him a Spanish sled. Emery, who was a Navy Reserve pilot familiar with unusual positions, became immediately hooked on bob sleighing. He and a fellow Western graduate - Lamont Gordon, gained enough competency in Lake Placid to represent Canada in the 1959 World Bobsleigh Championships in St Moritz, accompanied by Vic's brother John and Charles Rathgeb.
Their performance was less than stellar in 1959, however, Emery sought guidance from the great world champion and 1956 Olympic Silver medalist, Eugenio Monti, who became a life-long friend, mentoring Vic at annual World Championships from there on.
The initial goal of Vic and his teammates was to be the first Canadian bobsleigh team to compete in the Winter Olympic Games. Squaw Valley, host of the 1960 Winter Olympics, did not build a bobsleigh run for the Games, and so, the bobsledders of the time, including Monti and other world champions, chomped at the bit for the eight years from 1956 for another chance at Olympic medals.
Canada's Bobsleigh contingent realized their dream at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. Without corporate or government sponsorship, they purchased their equipment and generally paid their own way. And while strong in pre-race practice runs, they were given little chance against Monti's Italian world champion team, and double silver medalist in the 1956 Olympics, also the heavily favoured Austrians, as well as the Swiss, German champions and other long standing bobsledders. In the first heat, however, the Canadians astonished everyone, with a magical run which set a track record, leading the field by over a half second.
Their sled's axle was damaged when hitting a side wall in the finish straight. With little time allotted between heats, if the Canadians had missed their starting slot, the team would have been disqualified. However, Emery's rival and friend, Eugenio Monti and his mechanics, came to the rescue, adequately repairing the sled in time. The team carried on with second fastest second and third heats,and then, on the third day of the competition garnered another first place in the fourth heat to win overall by a full second.
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