Richard Garneau

The French voice of sports in Canada, Richard Garneau’s career spanned six decades and took him to 23 Olympic Games, more than any other journalist in the world. During the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Garneau was posthumously awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal by the International Olympic Committee in recognition of his exceptional service to the Olympic movement.

Garneau began his career at Quebec City radio station CHRC in November 1953. He joined Radio-Canada in 1957 where he remained for 33 years. He is perhaps best known as the host of La Soirée du hockey from 1967 to 1990 and in 1999 was the recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, putting him into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But his true passion was the non-professional sports of the Olympic Games. He loved track and field and was himself a marathon runner. At one time he was head of the Quebec Federation of Athletics.

In addition to his record-setting coverage of the Olympic Games, Garneau also told stories from seven Commonwealth Games and four Pan American Games. In 2000 he was appointed to the National Order of Quebec and in 2005 he was appointed Member of the Order of Canada. Garneau passed away on January 20, 2013 at age 82.