Brent Turner attended college at the University of Montana where he was on the ski team and competed at the NCAA Championships in 1974-75 in cross-country skiing. He started paddling in 1968, and was 1975 US Champion in K-4. He competed at the 1974 World Championships and the 1975 Pan American Regatta (different than the Pan American Games). Turner paddled for the St. Charles Canoe Club. In the 1970s he worked in sales for Moss Brent in Washington, DC. His sister was Ann Turner, who competed in kayaking at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Their father, Howard Turner, was the 1980 US canoe team manager for the 1980 Moskva Olympics, at which the US did not compete.