Canada was the first Summer Olympics host country to not win a gold medal, but Greg Joy helped the country end the Games on a high, winning a silver in the high jump.
Cheering spectators in the Olympic Stadium were also happy because Dwight Stones, an American who had been the favourite to win, ended up with a bronze.
Stones had been booed repeatedly.
Francophones were incensed after Stones – a controversial figure known as “the mouth with legs” and “the mouth that soars” – was quoted saying: “I’m very upset with the French-Canadians. The stadium isn’t finished, and that’s just plain rude.”
Hoping to quell the ensuing furor, Stones took to wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a message: “I love French-Canadians.” It didn’t help.
“When he began his approach to the bar, it built to a crescendo — wave on wave of hate pouring down from the upper echelons,” the Gazette reported on July 31, 1976.
Poland’s Jacek Wszola, winner of the Olympic high jump gold, applauds Canada’s Greg Joy of Vancouver during medal presentation on July 31, 1976. Joy made things exciting at the end and came up with a silver medal for Canada.
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