For a guy who claimed to have little or no athletic ability, middle distance runner Cliff Salmond achieved notable success on the track. Sporting the perfect physique for a runner, the long and lean Salmond initially specialized in the mile at Victoria High School and afterward won races on the Island and Lower Mainland at everything from a half mile to two miles. At age 20 he set a new Canadian two-mile record of nine minutes, 41 seconds, a performance that primed him for the 1948 Canadian Olympic trials. He won the 1,500 and 5,000 metres in Vancouver, setting a national record of 15:23 in the 5,000 in the process. The Olympic competition in London proved tough, however, and left Salmond on the sidelines for the finals. He kept up his chase for sporting glory back home while apprenticing as a machinist and attempted to qualify for the 1950 British Empire Games. He managed a second-place finish at the trials but it was not enough to secure a spot on the team and he retired from active competition at year's end. It may have been the end of Salmond's athletic career, but in 1992 he got the bug again and began training as Victoria prepared to host the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Retired from his real estate career at age 65, Salmond was readying himself for a different competition, the B.C. Seniors' Games. He proved he still had the competition edge, breaking two age-group records on the track that first year and setting three in 1994. Through 1999 he was still active as a runner and a coach for the Lower Island zone seniors track team.

His fight career was relatively short, but Esquimalt's Joe Bayley packed a punch in five years of slapping leather with opponents in the early 20th century. An all-around athlete with the Victoria West Athletic Association several years before he donned the gloves, Bayley enjoyed his greatest success in the ring. He won the Canadian lightweight championship in 1912 and defended it at least eight times before losing in 1913 to Frenchie Valise. The young Bayley was known for his tireless work at halfback with the Wests' championship soccer team, but discovered boxing as a teen. At age 19 in 1908, he won his first amateur fight, a victory he used as a springboard to B.C.'s 105-pound title two weeks later. A power puncher with plenty of stamina, Bayley turned pro in 1910 and chalked up 10 wins by knockout fighting on the Island, elsewhere in B.C. and Alberta. His first major win was a KO of Western Canada champ Billy Lauder in Edmonton in December 1911. Having picked up the nickname "KO" Bayley along the way, he won several more fights before meeting Canadian champ Billy Allen in Alberta. The 15-round fight went the distance, as the 128-pound Bayley wrested the crown from Allen. The Pride of Victoria further proved his mettle in the rematch, knocking out Allen in the third round. Bayley made a number of title defences, including a draw against Valise in Seattle, but the latter handed Bayley his first professional loss in a thrilling 15-round title bout in July 1913. The rematch in Vancouver was a 15-round draw that marked the end of Bayley's pro career.