SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — The Late Nancy Garapick

Honourable senators, last week, one of Canada’s and Nova Scotia’s greatest athletes passed away at her home in Langley, British Columbia. Nancy Garapick, a native of Halifax, was 64 years old.

Nova Scotia’s greatest swimmer, Nancy was named Canada’s youngest ever Female Athlete of the Year at age 14. She had previously established a world record at 13 years old in the 200‑metre backstroke at the Eastern Canadian Swimming Championships in Brantford, Ontario. That same year, she won the 200-yard backstroke at the U.S. AAU Championships and silver and bronze in the 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke at the second World Aquatics Championships in Cali, Colombia. At the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games, she was a double bronze medallist in the 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke. In 1977, Nancy won the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medley at the U.S. AAU National Short Course Championships.

In her career, she won 17 Canadian national titles and 38 championship medals. At 12 years of age, she had set 12 national age group records, some of which lasted until the 21st century. In 1973, she was the youngest participant in the second Canada Summer Games in New Westminster. In 1982, representing Dalhousie University, she was a five-time gold medallist at the Canadian Interuniversity Swimming Championships in Sherbrooke, Quebec. She was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2008 became a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

However, it was the two bronze medals that she won at the Montreal Olympics that effected great and needed change in the world of sports. Already setting a new Olympic record in the backstroke during the preliminary heats, she ended up winning the bronze medals in both the 100- and 200-metre backstroke, finishing just behind the same two East German swimmers in both events.

These swimmers, like many athletes behind the Iron Curtain, unquestionably appeared to be benefitting from performance-enhancing drugs. Although Nancy never complained, the entire world knew she had been cheated of the gold medals that were rightly hers.

Fortunately, the Montreal Olympics served as a catalyst for the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, to seriously investigate the growing use of drugs in sports. The IOC later concluded that drug-enhanced performances were widespread at the Montreal Olympics. Unfortunately, the IOC did not strip the cheaters of their medals, but the world knew that Nancy deserved those gold medals.

What an incredibly gifted athlete she was.

On behalf of the Senate of Canada and all Nova Scotians, we offer our heartfelt condolences to her family and friends. God rest her soul, and may perpetual light shine upon her.