Canadian Olympian and Author - Bill Gairdner

It's my pleasure to bring you my interview with Canadian Olympian Bill Gairdner. Bill competed in the 1964 Olympics. Today Bill is 80 years old and he is still a very active athlete and political mind. Last winter Bill cross-country skied 700km! Bill and I discuss his journey into athletics and his experience at the Olympics. We also discuss his life as an author as well as Bill's insights into how certain Olympic sports have evolved over the years. William Douglas Gairdner (born October 19, 1940 in Oakville, Ontario) is a retired track and field athlete who represented Canada in the men's 400 m hurdles and the men's decathlon at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded a silver medal in decathlon event at the 1963 Pan American Games in Brazil. Gairdner attended Appleby College in Oakville, and is now a resident of Toronto. Following his hurdling career, he applied himself to the field of academia. He gained his first M.A. in 1967 (studying Structural Linguistics at Stanford University) and then earned a second one at the institution in 1969 in English Literature and Creative Writing. A year later he graduated with a Ph.D. in English Literature from Stanford. He is a published author and, among his works, BPS Books have published The Trouble with Canada, The Trouble with Democracy and Oh, Oh, Canada!. Bill Gairdner - Wikipedia William Gairdner – William Gairdner has had a busy life as an athlete, an academic, a businessman, and latterly, as a successful author.