Jason Delesalle is a Burnaby Central Secondary grad he won the gold medal in the pentathlon at the 1996 Paralympic Games, setting as Games record 3.050 points. Also won bronze medal in discus at same Games.

Silver medalist in javelin at 1992 Barcelona Paralympics. At the 1990 International Blind Sports World Youth Games he won silver medals in the 100 and 200 metres and long jump. Between 1992 and 2003 won multiple national championships.

He is both the BC and Canadian record holder in the pentathlon for visually impaired men and a past recipient of BC Athletics Physically Disabled Athlete of the Year.

Barbara Howard is an amazing individual. At the age of 16 and still a high school student in 1937, she participated in track time trials for the 1938 British Empire and Commonwealth Games to be staged in Sydney, Australia. Her time of 11.2 seconds at the Western Trials equaled the games record for 100 yards.

And so she was off to Sydney, a journey aboard ship that would take 28 days and make her the first black woman athlete to represent Canada in international competition. She finished fifth in the 100 yard final, probably tired out from that long voyage, but did return home with a silver medal for the 440 yard relay and a bronze medal for the 660 yard relay.

Barbara planned on redemption at the next Olympics in Berlin but the outbreak of war kept her home. After graduation, she went on to earn a teaching degree and become the first person from a visible minority to be hired as a teacher by the Vancouver School Board, a career that spanned 43 years, 14 of them as a Physical Education teacher.

She still works out regularly at the Confederation Seniors Centre, remarkable in the fact she turns 91 this May, 2011.

Courtney Knight was the first visually-impaired athlete to win a B.C. high school track and field championship, placing first in the discus in 1995. With less than 10 per cent normal vision, her participation with an able-bodied Team B.C. at the Canadian Junior Championships and Western Canada Games were also firsts.

Knight is currently ranked No. 2 in the world in the pentathlon, discus and shot put and is the Canadian record holder in seven individual Paralympic disciplines. She is a three-time paralympian, winning silver medals in Atlanta and Sydney. Knight was the Sport B.C. disabled athlete of the year in 1995 and was B.C. Athletics’ female disabled athlete from 1996 to 2003.

Peter Ogilvie a St. Thomas More Collegiate grad, represented Canada in the track and field sprints at the 1991 and 1996 Olympic Games. He amassed eight individual medals in international competition, including gold at the 1994 Francophone Games in Paris, silver at the 1991 Pan Am Games and bronze at the 1993 world indoor championships.

Ogilvie was recognized with a distinguished top-40 ranking in the 200-metres four times in the 1990s and was ranked No. 1 in the world as a junior-aged athlete. He still holds 25 provincial and national records in junior and high school competition. Ogilvie is a two-time winner of Sport B.C.’s high school athlete of the year in 1989 and ’90.

“I’m shocked and I’m honoured. I hadn’t thought about it,” said Ogilvie from his office as technical manager at B.C. Athletics. “I went through the school system in Burnaby and having this kind of recognition made me go through the scrap book again. “All-in-all, it’s an honour. Now I can go back in my career and say, ‘this is where I’ve been.’ It’s the sport I love.”

Debbie Brill is considered the finest women high jumper ever to compete for Canada and is the originator of the now common backward style of jumping, then aptly described as the ‘Brill Bend.’ Brill represented Canada at three Olympics Games, two world championships, four Commonwealth Games and three Pan American Games.

During her career, she won more than 65 national and international medals, including gold at the worlds, Pan Ams and Commonwealth Games. Brill became the first North American woman to jump six feet and was named B.C.’s athlete of the decade in 1980. She later set an indoor world high jump record of 1.99 metres. Brill was named an officer of the order of Canada in 1983.

The Burnaby resident still competes at the master level and currently holds five age-class world indoor and outdoor records.

Dave Steen, Jr. was a bronze medalist in the decathlon at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was an outstanding athlete at Burnaby Central Secondary.

Steen set a national long jump record in the mid-70’s. He led the national decathlon rankings for nine years, breaking his own Canadian record four times. Steen won a silver medal in the decathlon at the 1986 Commonwealth Games. He went on to win gold in 1983 at the World Student and Pan Am Games. He was the first Canadian to an win Olympic decathlon medal.

Steen received the Order of Canada in 1990 and is a member of both the BC Sports Hall Of Fame (1991) and Canadian Sports Hall Of Fame (1992). After his athletic career Steen became a firefighter in Ontario.