Archie MacKinnon’s rowing career began as a spare on the University of British Columbia’s coxed eights crew, alongside Donald Arnold, Walter D’Hondt, and Lorne Loomer. As part of their training they were sent to compete in the coxless fours event at the Canadian Olympic trials, where they surprisingly won the right to represent Canada at the 1956 Summer Games. At the Olympics they took gold in the coxless fours, nearly ten seconds ahead of the Americans. Their next stop was the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where they earned gold as members of the eights crew (coxed by Sohen Biln). MacKinnon’s final major international tournament was the 1960 Summer Olympics, where he won silver, Canada’s only medal at the Games, in the coxed eights with Arnold, D’Hondt, David Anderson, Sohen Biln, Nelson Kuhn, John Lecky, Bill McKerlich, and Glen Mervyn. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with a degree in electrical engineering, he earned an M.B.A. from York University and, as of 2013, is part of the management team at Energy Capital North, a division of SutterHill Capital. He has been inducted into Canada’s Sports (1957), the Canadian Olympic (1958), the British Columbia Sports (1966), and the University of British Columbia Sports (1993) Halls of Fame with his gold medal-winning crew. He was inducted a second time into the British Columbia (1977) and University of British Columbia (2012) Sports Halls of Fame for his 1960 Olympic achievement.
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