The date was Friday, July 30, 1976. For Canada, it stands out as one of the more memorable days of the Montreal Olympic Games.  For the first time in 24 long years, Canada won an Olympic medal in canoeing on that day. And not unexpectedly, it was blonde single-blader John Wood, the pride and joy of the national champion Mississauga Canoe Club, who rose high above the flatwater course at the Basin Olympique to meet the biggest single challenge of his life and provide Canada with its first paddling medal since 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. 

    

     The medal was one of only 10 silvers won by Canadian competitors and the only one by an Ontario athlete. Later the same day, the Mississauga Canoe Club tandem of Wood and Gregg Smith finished seventh in the two-men (C-2) race. Winning a silver Olympic medal was a defining moment in John’s life. “I draw on my athletic experience every day,” he says. “I’ve learned how to define goals, plan a course of action and follow through with focused intensity.”

    John Wood, the paddler, is a true product of the Mississauga Canoe Club, where he paddled his first race as a bantam and later developed into one of the best in the world. The real turnaround in his canoeing career came when Wood was shipped off to train in Hungary under some of the most outstanding coaches as a guest of the Hungarian team. “I’ve learned what working hard meant,” he says. 

    

     Hard work paid off in a string of Canadian and North American titles from 1972 to his retirement in 1977. He competed in categories ranging from C-1 to war canoe. Wood represented Canada in three Olympics: 1968 in Mexico City, 1972 in Munich and 1976 in Montreal. He also competed in four world championships and won a silver medal in 1977 with partner Gregg Smith in 500-metre C-2.

    

     After retiring from competitive canoeing, he turned his attention to sailing and won a bronze medal in Soiling Class (three-man boat) in the 1979 Pan-American Games.

    

     John was inducted into the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame for 1976. In that year, he also received the Governor General’s Medal for outstanding merit. A stockbroker by trade, he became the presidency of the 20/20 Group. He and his wife (one-time junior ladies’ golf starlet, Debbie Daymond) settled down in Oakville with their four children.