Pamela Rai

Pamela Rai

Personal information
Full name	Pamela Leila Rai
Nickname(s)	"Pam"
National team	Canada
Born	(1966-03-29) March 29, 1966 New Westminster, British Columbia
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	57 kg (126 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Hyack Swim Club
College team	University of Victoria
Medal record Men's swimming Competitor for Canada Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m medley Pan American Games 1983 Caracas 4×100 m freestyle Commonwealth Games 1986 Edinburgh 4×100 m freestyle

Pamela Leila Rai (born March 29, 1966) is a former freestyle swimmer from Canada, who competed for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Rai won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4x100-metre medley relay, with teammates Anne Ottenbrite, Reema Abdo and Michelle MacPherson. Rai represented Canada as a youth from 1976 to 1979 and was a member of Canada's national swim team from 1980 to 1987. Other notable awards include University of Victoria Athlete of the Year, City of Victoria Athlete of the Year, Hapoel Games silver, Pan American Games silver, and Commonwealth Games gold medals. From 1984to 1987 Rai swam for the University of Victoria, where she dominated Canadian university women's swimming. She graduated with a degree in Sociology and went on to attain an education degree from the University of British Columbia. She is high school special education and social justice teacher. Rai is also a certified yoga instructor trained in Netala, India in the Sivananda Yoga lineage. Rai owns and operates Silent Motion Yoga Vedanta Centre on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo, British Columbia. She is a member of the BC Sports Hall of Fame, the Swim BC Hall of Fame, and the University of Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. Rai is the very first woman of Indian ancestry in the world, and the first Indo-Canadian to win an Olympic medal. Rai's father, Harinder Jit Singh Rai, was a member of the Canadian national field hockey team which qualified for the 1964 Olympic Games.

See also

• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)

External links

• Canadian Olympic Committee
• SportsReference.com