A member of the wrestling team at Queen’s University, Doug Anakin taught high school and coached wrestling for several years and became involved in bobsled and luge in the early 1960s. He continued coaching football, wrestling and skiing while training for the 1964 Winter Olympics and he was selected to compete on the Canadian Bobsled Team, which took the gold medal in the four man event at those games. He also competed in luge in 1964, but dropped out after 2 runs, having sustained some minor injuries and being unable to reconcile his bobsled and luge schedules. He represented Canada in bobsled internationally until 1967, at which time he became one of the biggest promoters of luge in Canada, coaching the Canadian luge team at the 1972 Winter Olympics. In 1990, he retired from teaching, settling in British Columbia, and John Abbott College, the institution where he coached for 19 years, established the “Doug Anakin Scholarship for Outdoor Pursuits” which is given annually to the student that best demonstrates Anakin’s traits. He is a member of the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.
Canada