Glen Grout

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameGlen•Grout
Used nameGlen•Grout
Born31 May 1952 in Vancouver, British Columbia (CAN)
Died24 August 2016 in Vancouver, British Columbia (CAN)
AffiliationsHollyburn Country Club, West Vancouver (CAN)
NOC Canada

Biography

Glen Grout was born and raised in Vancouver, the younger of two sons born to George and Shirley Grout. Growing up in West Vancouver, he first took up competitive swimming, then competitive diving around the age of 14 along with his brother Wayne. They joined Hollyburn Country Club in West Vancouver where they were coached by Bud Stevens, who later coached the 1968 Canadian Olympic diving team in Mexico City. The Grout brothers practiced their sport at many pools around the Vancouver area including at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, and in the summers and on weekends helped out at their father’s autobody and mechanic shop.

After completing high school in West Vancouver, he continued working at his father’s shop and furthered his training in his sport of competitive diving, training in Los Angeles and with former diving Olympian and 1956 bronze medalist Irene Macdonald. In 1970, Grout was the the first Canadian male to do a front 3½ somersault in a pike position and the first to do a back 2½ somersault in a pike, off a ten meter tower. In 1973, he earned a spot on the Canadian national diving team where he had the chance to compete and train internationally, including at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, 1974 Pan American Games in Mexico City, and 1976 Canada Cup in Toronto. His most notable international competition would be at the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal where he competed in the men’s platform event, finishing 22nd in the qualifying round. He later retired from competitive diving in that same year.

In the next few years, however, a series of unfortunate accidents in a few months’ span would drastically alter the course of his life. An avid skier, around 1978 Grout was involved in a skiing accident in which he fractured both of his legs and an ankle, then in April 1979 a serious single-vehicle accident near Hope, British Columbia left him with a brain injury. After his recovery, he lived in a group home in Burnaby, British Columbia until his death in 2016.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1976 Summer Olympics Diving (Aquatics) CAN Glen Grout
Platform, Men (Olympic) 22 r1/2