ARTIFACTS
COULD TALK
Olympic medals and Ajax don't mix
BY SILVIA PIKAL
A CANADIAN TRACK
AND FIELD STAR
At Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame
(page 27), Helena Deng, manager of exhibits
and collections, points out a display with two
Olympic medals.
The medals are both the same size, shape, and are
imprinted with the words “XI. Olympia de Berlin 1936.” Both
medals belonged to Canadian track and field athlete John Wilfrid
Loaring, who won a silver medal in 400-metre hurdles at the 1936
Berlin Olympics.
But one of these things is not like the other. One is silver and
shiny, while the other is discoloured and clearly damaged.
“Unfortunately, my mother cleaned the winner’s silver medal with
Ajax Cleanser which badly tarnished it,” Loaring's son, G. R. John
Loaring, said in an email to Where Calgary.
“Ajax is a very, very harsh chemical,” Deng says. “It’s great for
sinks, less so for silver medals. By cleaning it with Ajax, she stripped
a large portion — if not all — of the silver plating off the medal.”
Many years later, G. R. John Loaring received permission from the
International Olympic Committee Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland
to obtain a duplicate of the medal.
Luckily, the same German company that made the 1936 Berlin
Olympic medals was still in business and able to reproduce the
original. The medals are identical aside from a tiny “COPY” stamped
along part of the thin round edge. (And the copy is unravaged by
Ajax, of course).
In 2015, when Loaring was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall
of Fame, his son shipped his collection of medals to the museum,
which included the original and its shiny copy.
“We as Canadians have a very long history of success in
athletics,” Deng says. “This medal — to have it displayed — is that
impact story.”
26
where.ca
JULY/AUGUST 2018
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1936 OLYMPIC
SILVER MEDAL
Loaring was born in Winnipeg
and moved to Windsor in
1926. A rising track and field
star, he won several medals
in high school and on the
Kennedy Collegiate Track
Team.
At only 21 years old,
Loaring competed in the 1936
Olympic Games in 400-metre
hurdles. The very first time he
competed in this event was at the
Canadian Olympic trials. He was also
the youngest finalist in the category, and
thus surprised the world by taking home the silver
medal. Following his success in the Olympics, he won three gold
medals at the 1938 British Empire Games.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, he left Canada for
Britain to serve in the Royal Navy. In 1940, as a radar officer on
HMS Fiji, Loaring overcame gruelling and challenging circumstances.
When the ship was dispatched to pick up civilian survivors of a
torpedoed ship, Loaring was able to help resuscitate three children
due to his training in Royal Life Saving skills.
During the Battle for Crete, their ship ran out of ammunition and
was sunk by a German bomber. Thanks to the strength and stamina
Loaring developed as one of the top hurdlers in the world, he
survived by clinging to the wreckage for hours until he was rescued.
He developed severe oil poisoning due to being in the water for so
long, and was put ashore in Africa to recover. Still, less than a year
later he was back to competing in track meets in England.
Back home in Windsor he was an active athlete, worked as a
coach and lent his time to a variety of sports organizations.