Fiona Colbert, the College’s Biographical Librarian, has been checking the treasure trove of biographical records to find information about past Johnian involvement in the Winter Olympics. Here she tells us about some of the sporting achievements of alumni at the Games.
With this year’s Beijing Winter Olympics having recently drawn to a close, we have checked our biographical records for past Johnian involvement in the Games. There has been much talk of the artificial snow at Beijing 2022, but it was used for the first time at Lake Placid 1980. Most Johnian Winter Olympians have preferred ice to snow, despite the fact it is unlikely any of them experienced playing ice hockey on the Cam, as this photograph, probably from the winter of 1947, depicts.
The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924, and four years later our first Johnian Winter Olympian competed with the British Ice Hockey team at the 1928 games in St Moritz. Canadian-born William ‘Bill’ Speechly (1927) was netminder for both Cambridge University (two Varsity match victories for the Light Blues against Oxford, one as Captain), and Great Britain (fourth in the Olympics).
Rollo Brandt (1955), as well as taking part in the more traditional Johnian sports of rugby and rowing, was a member of the British Bobsleigh team which came 12th in the four-man bob at the Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics 1956. Another Johnian four-man bobsledder and luger, Norman Barclay (1943), was part of the British team at two Winter Olympics, Innsbruck 1964 and Grenoble 1968. After being injured at Innsbruck, Barclay gave an interview to the BBC from his hospital bed suggesting the only uninjured member of the team should not use his brakes on the Olympic run to win a gold medal for Britain (his comment may have been fuelled by the whisky his friends apparently smuggled into the hospital). The extreme sports enthusiast did the Cresta Run, raced powerboats and cars, became the first person to water-ski from Scotland to Ireland, and the first to pilot a hot air balloon over the Alps into Italy during winter.
Mark Hatton (1995), an athletics (pole vault) and ice hockey Blue, is one of Britain’s most successful lugers and competed in Salt Lake City 2002 and Torino 2006. In Utah, coming 25th, he was the highest placed slider from a nation without a luge track. At Vancouver 2010 he was Luge Competition Manager for the Organizing Committee, and at PyeongChang 2018 he coached the South Korean National Team.
The cancellation of the 1940 Winter Olympics which had been due to be held in Sapporo, Japan, prevented David Bradley (1938) from representing the US in their ski team. The US National Champion in Nordic Combined (cross-country skiing and ski jumping) had come to St John’s and competed for the University during the 1938-39 season (and was a member of the College Debating Society, arguing against the motion ‘That America is a Bad Thing’ and entertaining the house on the theme ‘Trout jump better in America’!). The Games were cancelled because of the war in Europe, but he did have later involvement, not as a competitor but as manager of the US Nordic Ski Team at Squaw Valley 1960, and as Chief of First Aid for all jumping events at Lake Placid 1980.
We are always delighted to update our records with the achievements of members of the College, sporting or otherwise. If any alumni, current students, Fellows or affiliates wish to ensure the College records their activities please let the Biographical or Development Office know so that we can add the details to the rich collection of material we hold on Johnian achievement throughout the centuries.
