Walter Fedorick

Canada’s Walter Fedorick was at his prime on the marathon scene from the mid-1940s and early 1950s, but he was overshadowed by his compatriot, four-time Boston Marathon winner Gérard Côté, and also competed against the talented Lloyd Evans. Fedorick’s first major victories came in 1946, when he became the Canadian national 10,000 m champion and won Hamilton’s Around the Bay Road Race. In 1948 he finished seventh in the Boston Marathon (Côté won and Evans placed sixth) and second at the Olympic trials held in his home town of Hamilton, behind Côté but ahead of Evans. This qualified him to represent his country at that year’s Summer Olympics, where he finished 23rd in a field of 41 entrants.

After reclaiming the Canadian 10,000 m title in 1949, Fedorick’s next major stop was the 1950 British Empire Games, where he was 10th in the marathon and 12th in the 6 mile. He also won that year’s Around the Bay Road Race. In 1951 he finally became the Canadian national marathon champion and also placed third – and as the highest-ranked Canadian – at the American nationals, but then drifted away from competitive racing. By career, he worked for Proctor and Gamble.

Personal Best: Mar – 2-28:04 (1951).