Nancy Garapick began swimming at seven years old and displayed considerable talent from a young age. Perhaps the biggest moment of her career came at age thirteen, when she set a world record in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 2:16.33. Although she lost it less than two months later, to Birgit Treiber of East Germany, she became a national hero, a status that was cemented with victories in the 100 and 200 metre backstroke events at the 1975 Canadian Championships, as well as bronze and silver in those events respectively at that year’s World Championships. She was given the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as the country’s female athlete of the year and was soon selected to represent Canada at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where she won bronze medals in the 100 and 200 m backstroke.
Garapick continued to compete for Canada after the Games, winning bronze in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay at the 1978 World Championships (alongside Gail Amundrud, Wendy Quirk, and Susan Sloan). Her next major stop was the 1979 Pan American Games, where she took home five medals: silver in the 200 metre individual medley and the 4x100 metre freestyle relay (with Amundrud, Cheryl Gibson, and the non-Olympian Anne Gagnon) and bronze in the 100 and 200 metre butterfly and the 400 metre individual medley. After being selected for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but forced to stay home following Canada’s boycott of the Games, she entered the University of Southern California and spent several years on their swim team. She retired from active competition in 1983, having won 17 national titles, and later worked as a teacher in the Yukon. She has been inducted into the Nova Scotia (1986) and Canada’s (2008) Sport Halls of Fame.
Canada