Fifty years ago, Olympian Greg Joy won silver in high jump at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. It was a defining moment for sport, and for the country. “It’s amazing that after all of these years, people still talk about it,” Joy told CTV News Ottawa. A moment etched in Canada’s history, “You could hear a pin drop. And as a matter of fact, the commentator said, ‘you can hear the raindrops falling on the track.’ It was so quiet and as soon as I went over, the place just exploded,” he says. Joy jumped 2.23 metres. “I knew that I had secured a medal. I wasn’t sure of the colour yet.” An emotional and memorable achievement to this day for many, Joy says his daughter was recently shown video of the entire jump, complete with sound from the stadium. “She was in tears. So, even my daughter, who’s grown up with this, realized the impact of the moment. So, when I look at that and say, ‘yeah, I kind of get it.’” The medal-winning jump immortalized in the “O Canada Sign-Off,” that aired on TV for years. “When TV came on and when TV came off; and, even today people still mention it. It was a huge honour to be a part of that,” he says. This was also Canada’s first time hosting the Olympics. “The big thing was I had home field advantage. So, when I was up, you could hear it in the crowd,” says Joy. This week, as Canada celebrates that occasion, Joy says he will be attending events in Montreal to mark the occasion, one that inspired future generations of Canadians, “There’s so many that have done that in this nation, to make sport where it is today.”
