It was announced on Wednesday that Canadian Olympic gold medalist Bruny Surin of Montreal, Quebec is among the newest appointees to the Order of Canada. Surin won a gold medal for Canada in the men’s 4×100 metre relay at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He also won five medals at the World Track and Field Championships, two gold medals at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships, two medals at the Commonwealth Games, one medal at the Goodwill Games, and one gold medal at the Francophone Games.
Surin’s Olympic gold medal came alongside Robert Esmie of Sudbury, Ontario, Donovan Bailey of Oakville, Ontario, Carlton Chambers of Mississauga, Ontario, and Glenroy Gilbert of Ottawa, Ontario. The Canadian team amazed the NBC broadcasting crew in the United States when they were faster than the American team by 0.36 seconds.
Of Surin’s five medals at the World Track and Field Championships, two were gold medals in the relay. He was once again part of the Canadian team that finished first in 1995 in Gothenburg and 1997 in Athens. Surin also won World Championship silver in the men’s 100 metres in 1995, and again in 1999 in Seville, along with a World Championship bronze medal in the men’s 4×100 metre relay in 1993 in Stuttgart.
Surin’s gold medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships came in the men’s 60 metres. The first came in Toronto in 1993, and the second came in Barcelona in 1995. At the Commonwealth Games, Surin won gold in the men’s 4×100 metre relay in Victoria in 1994, and bronze in the men’s 100 metres in Auckland in 1990. At the Goodwill Games, Surin won silver in the men’s 4×100 metre relay in New York in 1998. At the Francophone Games, he won gold in Paris in 1994 in the men’s 100 metres.
Surin’s fastest 100 metre time was 9.84 seconds, which tied Bailey for a Canadian record. He posted that time when he won the silver medal at the 1999 World Championship in Seville. Among the other accolades Surin has received have included being inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, and the Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 2016.
