- Nominations
- Inductees
- Alexander, Lisa
- Attard, Larry
- Bailey, Angela
- Balding, Al
- Bard, Alex
- Biggar, Howard
- Borthwick, Gayle
- Boyd, Mabel
- Brenneman, John
- Brown, David
- Brown, Louise
- Brydson, Gordon
- Carver-Dias, Claire
- Chambers, Carlton
- Christie, Marc
- Clare, Lou
- Clark, Karen
- Coffey, Paul
- Distelmeyer, Wallace
- Doty, Fred
- Dudley, Rick
- Ealey, Chuck
- Edwards, Dwight
- Eisele, Sylvia
- Fee, Earl
- Finlay, Matt
- Forshaw, Sheila
- Gilbert, Greg
- Gray, Gerry
- Greenwood, Jill
- Gurowka, Joe
- Hamilton, Stu
- Harris, Susan
- Hattin, Heather
- Hawley, Sandy
- Henderson, Paul
- Hibbert, Curtis
- Hicken, Blair
- Hickox, Mac
- Hinds, Sterling
- Hollett, Frank W.
- Homer-Dixon, Marjorie
- Hughes, Gord
- Kelly, Bob
- Kern, Ben
- Kerr, Jane
- Laumann, Danielle
- Laumann, Silken
- Lay, Jeff
- Loek, Fred
- Love, Jerry
- Martin, Peter
- Marland, Robert
- McCallion, Hazel
- McClintock, Joel
- McClintock-Messer, Judy
- McFater, Al
- McKenzie, Merv
- McQuaker, Charles (Red)
- Morris, Ted
- Oldershaw, Bert
- Oldershaw, Dean
- Oldershaw, Reed
- Oughtred, Wally
- Owoc Chennette, Andrea
- Pallett, Howard
- Paterson, Charlie
- Patey, Larry
- Plaxton, Hugh
- Pogue, Jim
- Poulin, Dave
- Preston, Karen
- Primeau, Joe
- Reddon, Lesley
- Riddell, Sam
- Rider, Fran
- Roach-Leuszler, Winnie
- Ross, Bill
- Ryder, Gus
- Samuel, Ernest
- Serwetnyk, Carrie
- Sicinski, Bob
- Smylie, Doug
- Stanfield, Fred
- Stanfield, Gord
- Stewart-Pellett, Ellen
- Tanti, Tony
- Toth, Mike
- Umeh, Stella
- Van Kiekebelt, Debbie
- Volpe, Nick
- Waites, Al
- Wilson, Bruce
- Wirkowski, Nobby
- Wood, Art
- Wood, John
- Young, Mike
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Name:
YOUNG, Michael
Sport:
Bobsledding
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Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
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The scars have healed in a matter of a few years, but the memory lingers on. Michael Young will always remember the day he came within inches of losing his life on a bobsled runaway at Lake Placid, N.Y. The details remain etched on the mind of this Port Credit native — at least most of them. It happened during the winter of 1966, the year after Young helped Canada win a bobsledding gold medal in the world championships. The mountains framing the New York State resort provided a panoramic backdrop to a real life drama that started out as a thriller and ended in tragedy. The sled of the favourite Canadian team turned over while negotiating a dangerous “death” curve and crashed into the lip of the runaway during the North American four-men championships. Olympic and world medallist driver Sergio Zardini was instantly killed. Two other members of the Canadian quartet — Quebecker Paul Levesque and Bob Storey from Ontario — walked away with relatively minor bruises. Young, 21 at the time and a graduate of Port Credit Secondary School, was not that fortunate. Unconscious with head injuries, he was rushed to a Lake Placid hospital and when his condition improved, was flown to Montreal for a month of extensive plastic surgery. “I do remember the day and the run, but I don’t have a recollection of the crash itself,” Young said as he was about to become one of the five inaugural inductees into the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame in 1975. Even though he had felt the icy breath of death, the tragedy didn’t put an end to the love affair with one of the most dangerous , thrilling and most sophisticated of all winter sports. He was back on the sled again the following year. Due to inclement weather, the 1967 world championships were in the French Alps were cancelled. In ‘68, he was back on the runway again, finishing 11th in the two-man bobsled global finals. |
Young first experience the trill of bobsledding when he was a student at the University of Western Ontario and was involved in several different sports. “I was always sports-minded,” he explained. “At Port Credit and Western, I played football.” One day he received a call from his bobsledding cousin Vic Emery, the man who guided Canada to its only Olympic victory in ‘64. Emery wanted to know if cousin Michael could fill in for an injured member of the Canadian team heading for the 1965 world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Yes, Michael was interested. Little did he suspect that a few days after the call he would have his first spill in a practice run, followed by a more satisfying bronze medal effort with Emery in the two-man bobsled and finally a world championship crown in the four-man bobsled with Emery, Peter Kirby, Gerald Presley and Young in the triumphant quartet. Memory of the St. Moritz victory is about the only one that matches that of the Lake Placid crash. Young and his teammates are honoured members of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 1975, he moved first to Denver, Colorado and later to Dallas, Texas as a private sector business consultant. |
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