Duff Gibson

Duff Gibson
Personal information
Born August 11, 1966 (age 48)
Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

Duff Gibson (born August 11, 1966) is a Canadian skeleton racer who competed from 1999 to 2006. He was born in Vaughan, Ontario. His father was born on December 13, 1937. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, He won the gold medal in the men's skeleton, narrowly beating out his teammate Jeff Pain. His victory made the 39-year old surpass ice hockey player Al MacInnis as the oldest gold medalist in Canadian Winter Olympic history. More significantly, Gibson became the oldest individual gold medalist in the history of the Winter Games, a record previously held by Norway's Magnar Solberg, who was 35 when he won the gold medal in the 20 km individual biathlon event at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo; he held the record until Ole Einar Bjørndalen won gold at the 10 km biathlon sprint aged 40 at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. He retired immediately following the 2006 Games in Turin.

Gibson also finished tenth in the men's skeleton event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He also won two medals in the men's skeleton event at the FIBT World Championships with a gold in 2004 and a bronze in 2005. Gibson's best overall seasonal Skeleton World Cup finish was second in the men's event in 2003-4.

In October 2009, Gibson is pairing up with the Stephen Lewis Foundation to raise money for HIV/AIDS affected families in Africa. The Gold medal Olympian carried a 20-litre jug of water approximately 12 km through Calgary from Canada Olympic Park to his son's school. The "dare" is part of the foundations current A Dare to Remember campaign.

Off the ice, Gibson is a firefighter at the Calgary International Airport.

For the 2010 Winter Olympics, a picture of Gibson in competition from the previous Olympics was used as a pictogram for the skeleton events. In June 2010, Gibson was announced as a coach for the Canadian skeleton team.

Duff Gibson is also the nephew of Edward Gibson, who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics as a rower for the Canadian team, finishing 7th.

References