Charmaine Crooks

Biography

Charmaine Crooks is Canada’s first female five-time Olympian in athletics.

Just a year after taking up running seriously, she was selected for the 1980 Olympic team, but was unable to compete when Canada joined the American-led boycott of the Games in Moscow.

Four years later, she finally stepped on an Olympic track and was a member of the 4x400m relay team that won silver at Los Angeles 1984. As a veteran leader who had always been an advocate for fair play, Crooks was given the honour of being Team Canada’s Opening Ceremony flag bearer at Atlanta 1996.

At her final Olympic Games, Crooks was elected by her peers to the IOC Athletes’ Commission. From 2000 to 2004 she was a full voting member of the IOC and became a founding member of the IOC Ethics Committee. She was also on the founding Executive Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency and has served on the Executive Board of Right to Play International. In 2006, she received the IOC Women and Sport Award.