A Runner's Journey

In the 1960s, Bruce Kidd was one of Canada’s most celebrated athletes. As a teenager, Kidd won races all over the globe, participated in the Olympics, and started a revolution in distance running and a revival in Canadian track and field. He quickly became a symbol of Canadian youth and the subject of endless media coverage.

Although most athletes of his generation were cautioned to keep their opinions to themselves, Kidd took it upon himself to speak out on the problems and possibilities of Canadian sport. Encouraged by his parents and teammates, Kidd criticized the racism and sexism of amateur sport in Canada, the treatment of players in the National Hockey League, American control of the Canadian Football League, and the uneven coverage of sports by the media – and he continues to fight for equity to this day. After retiring from his career as an athlete, Kidd became a well-known advocate for gender and racial justice and an academic leader at the University of Toronto.

Depicting a Canadian sport legend’s journey of joy, discovery, and activism, this memoir bears witness to the remarkable changes Bruce Kidd has lived through in more than seventy years of participation in Canadian and international sports.

Bruce Kidd is a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and university ombudsperson at the University of Toronto.