John Emery (bobsleigh)

John Emery ( born January 4, 1932 in Montreal) is a former Canadian bobsledder. He was Olympic champion in 1964 in the four-man event. His younger brother Victor Emery was also bobsledder.

Career

Emery studied medicine, besides he was an excellent athlete, boxer and skier. Encouraged by his brother, who had followed in 1956 as a spectator the Olympic bobsled race in Cortina d' Ampezzo, he began in 1957 with the Bobsleigh and was co-founder of the Laurentian Bobsleigh Association. 1959 Emery took the first time at the world championships, the Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti acted as her mentor. The training conditions were extremely unfavorable: The Canadian Olympic Committee refused any support, so that Canadians had to practice in gyms push starts and rarely got on the bobsled track in Lake Placid, the opportunity to practice sessions.

Before the Olympic Winter Games in 1964, the Austrians and Italians were seen as high as a house favorite. The Canadian Viererbobteam consisting of the Emery brothers, Peter Kirby and Douglas Anakin could only train four times on the Olympic bobsleigh run Igls, unlike many competitors who had arrived a week earlier. Quite surprisingly, undercut the Canadians in the first run the track record, held up to the end at the top and won the gold medal. Along with Gordon Currie John Emery came also in the two- and finished eleventh.

Emery then ended his sporting career, settled in San Francisco and was a well-known plastic surgeon. He remained active in sports. So he took in 1979 at the Boston Marathon and 1980 part of the Ironman Hawaii.