Unexpected hero keeps one foot in the ring
The bantamweight: Dale Walters
Willie deWit and Shawn O’Sullivan were famous around the globe. The Canadians were world champs. Favourites to win boxing gold at the Los Angeles Olympics.
But at the edge of that limelight was another tough-as-nails Canadian pug: Dale Walters.
Walters says pre-Olympic publicity enveloping deWit and O’Sullivan “rightfully” eclipsed him, even though he was also a medal contender on the large, skilled Canadian team. (The ’84 team had a fighter in every weight class; the Rio-bound squad has only one under new qualification rules.)
“I was always in their shadow and rightfully so,” says the affable 52-year-old, now a personal fitness trainer and boxing skills instructor in the Vancouver area. “I hadn’t won the big ones . . . They were world champions.”
However, it would be the bantamweight, not the superstars, making history in L.A. Walters became the first Canadian since 1932 to win an Olympic boxing medal. But the bronze was crushing to Walters.
“I was so disappointed not winning a gold medal,” he says in a phone interview from his home in Burnaby, B.C. “I’ll never forget (Canadian coach) Taylor Gordon telling me once I was guaranteed a bronze medal that ‘You’re the first (medallist) in 52 years, Dale,’ and I’m like, ‘So what? It’s only bronze.’ ”
During his flight back to Vancouver, Walters still felt he’d let the country down — until he walked through customs and into the terminal. There, a crowd awaited. Cheering him. Reminding him an Olympic medal is to be treasured.
“I came home to a national hero’s welcome. I couldn’t believe it.”
Today, Walters calls that L.A. squad “the greatest Olympic boxing team Canada has ever produced.”
Like deWit and O’Sullivan, Walters embarked on a pro career. A big star in B.C., Walters was managed by music promoter Bruce Allen, whose clients include Bryan Adams and Michael Bublé.
Walters went 7-1 over his two years as a pro, losing to Tony Pep. Pep was the only Canadian to beat Walters over his entire career, which included five national amateur championships.
Walters considered a return to the ring after the loss but subsequent injuries — a “shattered” ankle from a skydiving episode and breaking his hand a fifth time — ended the plan.
In retirement, the enterprising Walters turned his energy to other pursuits. (As a teenager, he juggled an acting career — remember Beachcombers spinoff Ritter’s Cove? — while boxing).
Walters worked as a colour commentator. (He was in the CBC booth for O’Sullivan’s gold medal final.) He opened his own boxing gym in downtown Vancouver, Ringside Fitness, in 1994 and later ran a small bar.
Walters met his future partner, sports broadcaster Kathy Kovacs, when he set a Guinness world record by making more than 500 consecutive “double under” skips with a jump rope. She was covering the event.
The pair had two sons. (Walters has an older son from a previous relationship.) Lacrosse, not boxing, was the sport for the boys. Walters coached all three, with his oldest son, Trevor, winning a national indoor lacrosse title as a teenager.
Walters also keeps in touch with O’Sullivan.
They forged an enduring friendship at the Olympic village (deWit stayed outside the village) as they moved deeper into the competition. On the day of semifinals, they listened to music, joked around, kept the mood light.
“I was going into the medal round with him,” Walters says. “It was a nice moment.”
Walters and O’Sullivan saw each other during their pro years, then connected by phone in retirement as their family lives got busier. In 2010, Walters was disturbed by news reports that O’Sullivan wasn’t included in the Olympic torch relay when it passed through Belleville.
Walters joined a local group, including media, scrambling to get O’Sullivan a torch leg.
Permission granted by Vancouver Games organizers, Walters arranged a quick flight out for O’Sullivan, met him at the airport with camera crews (“he came off the plane to a hero’s welcome”), partied at Walters’ bar, slept very little and the next morning,
“I came home to a national hero’s welcome. I couldn’t believe it.” DALE WALTERS ON RETURNING TO CANADA WITH HIS BRONZE MEDAL IN 1984
O’Sullivan — decked out in official relay gear — carried the torch in North Vancouver.
“It was something that, for the rest of my life, I can take so much pride in,” Walters says of the “miracle” in putting the torch into O’Sullivan’s hand. “People still tell me how amazing it was.” Since that time, Walters’ life has changed dramatically. He and Kovacs split and last year, his two youngest sons moved to Edmonton with their mother.
“It kills me,” he said, not living with the boys. He flies them to Burnaby when he can and keeps tabs on their lacrosse and school achievements by phone.
Walters sold his small bar during his personal tumult (he’d sold the gym years earlier but still trains clients there) and is working to expand his personal fitness business. Actor David Zayas, a veteran of hit television series such as Dexter and Oz, is one of his newest clients.
Walters also officiates boxing and has conducted technical boxing skills clinics; he’s planning to run more clinics in the fall, he says, “after I spend as much of the summer as I can with my children.”