Winners: Greg Joy, Athletics
Greg Joy celebrates after clearing 2.21 metres to advance and compete for the Gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Date: July 31, 1976
Collection: CP photo
1976 - Feature Story
Canadians “jumped for joy” when Vancouver’s Greg Joy earned the Silver medal in the men’s high jump competition at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Just two years earlier Joy had dominated the British Columbia High School Championships with a 2.11m leap, a record that would not be broken for 30 years. In 1975, as a freshman at University of Texas-El Paso, he won the NCAA indoor title. The men’s Olympic high jump proved a dramatic close to the 1976 Games’ track and field program. Joy captivated the crowd as he steadfastly remained in the medal hunt, in unseasonably cold and rainy conditions. American Dwight Stones, the reigning world record holder, topped out of the competition at 2.21m to earn the Bronze medal. Poland’s Jacek Wszola and Joy continued to battle, with Wszola finally taking the Gold medal with a jump of 2.25m and Joy earning the Silver medal with a jump of 2.23m. Four weeks later, Joy leaped to a Canadian and Commonwealth record of 2.26 m.
Career Highlights
- 1986 Inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
- 1978 Silver medal in the high jump event at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton
- 1976 Lionel Conacher Award (Canada’s male athlete of the year)
- 1976 Silver medal in the high jump event at the Olympic Games in Montreal
- 1973 Gold medal in the high jump event at the Canada Games in New Westminster/Burnaby
Greg Joy winning the Silver medal with this high jump at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Date: 1976
Collection: CP photo/File
Shoes worn by Greg Joy when he won the Silver medal in high jump at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Date: 1975-1980
Collection: Images © 2010 Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto
Portrait of Greg Joy.
Date: 1976
Collection: Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame
