Gary Athans comes from a tradition of athletic success: his father George Sr. was an Olympic diver who won medals nationally and at the British Empire Games; his mother was a championship swimmer; his older brother George Jr. is a two-time world water-skiing champion; and another brother, Greg, was a successful freestyle skier. Gary chose alpine skiing and won the Junior World Championships in 1975. He spent eight years on the Canadian national team and later represented his nation at the 1984 Winter Olympics and finished 26th in a field of 61 competitors. He now works in real estate and teaches ski-cross, having retired from active competition in the 1990s. He also had a career as a water skiing and ski racing instructor in Kelowna, British Columbia, where a local swimming pool is named in his family’s honor, and he worked in films as a professional stunt skier. In addition to skiing, he was also a junior British Columbia provincial diving champion during the 1970s. With his family he was made a member of the Central Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 and in 2010 he helped carry the Olympic torch as it made its way to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.
Canada