Nicolas Gill was inspired to take up judo after watching his older brother compete. His breakthrough year was 1990, when he was first crowned Canadian national champion in the middleweight category and won the division at the Pan American Championships. He was Canadian champion again in 1991 and 1992, and finished seventh at the 1991 World Championships. He was selected to represent Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympics where, in a surprising upset, he defeated tournament favorite Hirotaka Okada of Japan in the semi-finals of their pool. Gill then lost to Waldemar Legień of Poland, the eventual gold medalist, but bested Adrian Croitoru of Romania in the repêchage to win a bronze medal. When he earned his podium spot, however, “there was not one Canadian reporter on-site” according to one national media source.
Gill would work hard to change that. In 1993 he slipped to third at the Canadian championships, but won a silver medal at the Worlds, bested by Yoshio Nakamura of Japan in the finals. He retook the Canadian title in 1994 and held it through the 1996 Summer Olympics, where he finished seventh after being defeated by eventual bronze medalists Marko Spittka of Germany in the semifinals of his bracket and Mark Huizinga of the Netherlands in the repêchage. Along the way he won gold at the 1995 Pan American Games and bronze at that year’s World Championships. In 1997 he moved up to the half-heavyweight division, where he would remain for the rest of his career, and won four more Canadian championships (1997-1999, and 2001) for a total of ten, despite being hampered by knee surgery in September 1997. He defended his title at the 1999 Pan American Games and won bronze at the World Championships that year before entering the 2000 Summer Olympics, where he captured a silver medal after losing in the final to the great Kosei Inoue of Japan. He dropped to seventh at the 2001 World Championships, but won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games the following year. He was fifth at the World Championships in 2003, but won silver at the Pan American Games, losing to Mário Sabino Júnior of Brazil in the finals.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics Gill was Canada’s flagbearer, having come a long way since the nation’s media had ignored him in 1992. He was eliminated in the opening round of the half-heavyweight event and retired soon after to take up coaching. One of his students, Antoine Valois-Fortier, won a bronze medal for Canada in the half-middleweight category at the 2012 Summer Games.
Canada