Derek Porter was not interested in rowing until, as a student at the University of Victoria, he was introduced to Canadian gold medalist Grant Main. Although Derek Porter’s first appearance at the World Rowing Championships was in the coxless pairs (alongside non-Olympian Ian Swan), his earliest rowing specialty was the eights. The core crew of Porter, Darren Barber, Andy Crosby, Robert Marland, Terry Paul, Michael Rascher, Bruce Robertson, and John Wallace won silver in the event at the 1990 and 1991 World Championships (with Brian Saunderson and Don Telfer respectively) and then gold at the 1992 Summer Olympics (with Michael Forgeron), setting an Olympic record in the process. Following this victory, Porter switched to single sculls and was crowned World Champion in 1993. He was less successful in 1994 and 1995, finishing 8th and 7th at the World Championships respectively, but returned to form at the 1996 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal behind Switzerland’s Xeno Müller. He participated at the next two editions of the World Championships, but did not devote as much attention to training, choosing instead to complete his chiropractic studies. In 1999, however, he reached the podium twice, with gold at the Pan American Games and bronze at the World Championships. This success led to expectations of a showdown at the 2000 Summer Olympics, between Porter, Müller and two-time World Champion Rob Waddell of New Zealand. In the end Porter finished fourth, edged out of the bronze medal by Germany’s Marcel Hacker. Porter retired after the Games and, after a brief attempt at resuming his career in 2006, settled down as a chiropractor in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was made a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1994 and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Canada