Lorne Loomer is a Canadian athlete in a rarefied league. Only he and three other Canadians have gold medals from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Lorne and his three teammates won the gold on the Canadian fours rowing crew. Loomer went on to captain the Canadian team at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, where he again won gold. He also competed in the 1960's Rome Olympics. By the mid 1960's, Loomer was established as the coach of the University of Victoria's rowing program, which had been established through a donation from the late Harold Elworthy. Loomer developed an astonishing number of young, talented rowers that formed the backbone of the Canadian showing at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Billy Foster, in 1965, was the first Canadian to ever race in the Indianapolis 500. Two years later at age 29 he was dead, the result of a fatal crash in a practice lap at a NASCAR race in Riverside, California. Billy was a hugely popular individual and the great Mario Andretti counted him a friend. Billy had an early interest in racing and at age thirteen was found hanging around doing odd jobs at the old Langford track. Within eight years he was testing tires for the Firestone Corporation. In his races at Western Speedway and around the Pacific Northwest he was always the frontrunner and he is regarded as pivotal in proving to many that a Canadian could make it in the big leagues of car racing.