Inductees

Lyle Dickieson (2012)

Speed Skating Athlete

After making his mark as one of Canada’s most formidable open-water and white-water canoe racers, Lyle Dickieson should have known he was destined for great things as a speed skater.

As a natural-born athlete, success is in his genes.

Although well into his late 40s before he discovered his talent on ice, the native of Calgary inherited his need for speed from his parents, Frank and Mildred, who both competed on long blades. His mom was an Alberta champion in the 1940s, a feat Lyle would accomplish several times as a B.C. masters champion, going on to win the Canadian masters championship twice, proving you don’t have to be young to excel in sports.

Not letting his bad knees slow him down, he went looking for a new challenge and joined the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club and proved not only a worthy champion at sprint distances but showed he could take the punishment of marathon racing.

“I can’t do running so it’s a joy to be able to skate,” said Dickieson. “It’s so smooth and easy on us old farts. I’m not really a long-distance athlete, most canoe races are over in a few minutes.”

In the gruelling 100-kilometre event in the Sylvan Lake Ice Marathon he finished second in 2005 and 2006, then captured the 25km and 50km titles at the 2008 North American championships in Edmonton. In 2008-09 he set records in all his long track provincial races for his age category while claiming his third-straight B.C. Cup overall title.

Dickieson took on the best in the world in his age category at the international masters long track championships and came home with a 17th-place finish in 2007, topping that with a 14th-place result in 2011. Now a certified coach, he maintains his love of speed skating as an icemaker, one of the key members of the volunteer crew that builds and maintains the Exhibition Park outdoor ice oval.

Whether it’s skating on the ice or paddling a canoe on water, Dickieson knows the fast way to the finish line. His athletic prowess with a paddle in his hands earned him a spot on Canada’s white-water freestyle canoe team from 1995-1999 as a five-time winner of the Western Canada Open. Three times he represented Canada at the world white-water championships, placing fourth in 1995 in Germany, third in 1997 in Ottawa, and seventh in 1999 in New Zealand.

Dickieson also established the three-city Voyager Cup races, and organized the Willow River Whitewater Rodeo from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, winning the open canoe competition in all but one of those years.

His dedication and organizational skills made him a key figure on the executive of the Northwest Brigade Canoe Club. One of few to have mastered the art of rolling an open canoe without a paddle, he shared his knowledge and coaching techniques with instructors from youth programs at Camp Trapping, Intersect and in school District 57. Certified as a master instructor at national and provincial levels, he was a tireless promoter of programs that taught paddling skills to people with disabilities, and in 2007 was presented with the Brian Creer Award, the Recreational Canoeing Association of B.C.’s greatest honour.