The 1984 Summer Olympics will always hold a special place in the hearts of Sudbury sports fans.

Few who were around at that time are unlikely to ever forget the double gold medal performance of swimmer Alex Baumann.

Throw in the fact that Eli Pasquale would help lead the Canadian men’s basketball team to a fourth place finish, that weightlifter Kevin Roy equalled that performance in the 100kg heavyweight class and that cyclist Gary Trevisiol was busy competing in the individual pursuit and you have the makings of a highly memorable local connection to Los Angeles that summer.

Now, it seems, there are even more layers to this story.

A few months back, I penned a column regarding the notion of “Sudbury Olympians”.

While some misinterpreted the writings as an effort to list of all those who could lay claim to this monitor (yes, I am fully aware that Pasquale is one of our best ever candidates, having twice represented his country at the Games), the truth is that the article was meant to generate a debate on how exactly one goes about defining someone as being a Sudbury Olympian - or a Stratford Olympian, or a Fredericton Olympian, etc…

Which brings me to my latest interesting findings.

Fred Blaney and Wayne Brightwell were born roughly two years apart - 1955 and 1957 - both in Sudbury. By the ages of three and one or so, the families of both lads had moved on from northern Ontario, the Blaneys returning back to New Brunswick and Brightwells heading to southwestern Ontario.

The two men would reconnect, sort of, years later.

Blaney would qualify in judo for the Los Angeles Olympics, with Brightwell doing the same in wrestling - though by all accounts, neither actually met the other at any point in California. Even if they had, it’s unlikely they would have identified a common bond by virtue of the nickel city.

And while I identified several pertinent factors that might define an athlete as a Sudbury Olympian in my original story, there is one aspect that I completely neglected, one which became evident as I reached out to both of these gentlemen: exactly how does the athlete himself/herself view their connection to Sudbury?

Let’s pick up their stories from the start. By today’s standards, both Blaney and Brightwell started relatively late into the sporting pursuit that would lead them to greatness.

“I grew up in rural New Brunswick and really didn’t get introduced to judo until I went to university,” said Blaney, still living in New Brunswick, still quite active on the administrative side of his sport, and now with roughly two decades of involvement with the Canadian Olympic Committee to his credit.

While his high-school sports were hockey and volleyball, Blaney was still, somewhat unknowingly, developing a base for future judo excellence. “You need to be strong to do well in judo and I was working in the woods, throwing logs around,” he said. “I went into the sport strong and was lucky enough to get good coaching, good training.”

Additionally, he also fit the mold, sliding nicely into the athletic profile from which most judo champions are born. “I’m 6’1” but I have 32 inch legs, so shorter legs to my body, and good balance,” stated Blaney. “It really helps to have a low centre of gravity in this sport.”

Though he started in judo in 1973, he felt confident enough three years later to take a leap of faith. “I attended a pre-Olympic (1976) training camp and that really got me started down the pathway of being an elite athlete.”

Competing internationally by the end of the decade, Blaney was named as an alternate to the 1980 team that ultimately boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympics. Four years later, he was definitely in the mix in LA. “I did not win a medal, but I had beaten three of the people on the podium when we had competed previously,” he said.

“I knew that I was in that group.”

An injury curtailed a second chance in 1988, at a time when one of ten children in the family (two were born in Sudbury) was better positioned, in his mind, to achieve success. A year later, attempting a comeback at the Francophone Games, Blaney finished fifth. “Previously, I would have always medalled there,” he said.

“At that point, I realized that it wasn’t to be any more. I was 32, a little long in the tooth as an elite athlete.”

His connection to judo would remain strong. “I was recruited almost immediately to sit on the High Performance committee of Judo Canada. From that point on, I became a national councillor, chairman of the national training board, and have been involved for the past 20 to 30 years plus as a referee and a judge.”

And what of his connection to Sudbury?

“I’ve always considered myself a Sudbury Olympian,” said Blaney, whose aunt actually worked in the local hospital in which he was born. “When I won nationals for the first time, Sudbury claimed me. The city where I am living in New Brunswick didn’t even put me in the paper.”

Contrast that with Wayne Brightwell, inducted into the Stratford Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

“At the induction in Stratford, I mentioned that it was amazing what can happen from a small town,” said the man who has lived in Guelph for virtually his entire life following his graduation from the university in the same city. “I would say the same about Sudbury, if I had strong roots there.”

Strong northern roots, perhaps, just not so much in Sudbury.

Brightwell’s father, Harry, was born and raised in Timmins, attended veterinary school at the University of Guelph and worked in partnership in Sudbury with Dr Frank Flowers, for a year and a half, before establishing his practice and base for the next several decades in Stratford.

Wayne would be the family’s only child both in this area. “We would go to Sudbury to get up to my grandfather’s place in Timmins,” said Brightwell. “I’ve been there and stopped-in one time and did the mine tour. I’ve always kind of felt a connection, but really did not know a heck of a lot about Sudbury.”

A gold medal winner at the Ontario Winter Games but third place finisher at OFSAA, Brightwell really started to excel when he joined the Gryphons, capturing the OUAA title in his freshman season. “I almost quit at the start of my second year,” he said with a laugh. “I was an Ontario champion but I had never scored a takedown in the room.”

“Our (Guelph’s) room was that strong - and I was really frustrated.”

Brightwell overcame that challenge, excelling in a weight class (heavyweight) that he actually needed to bulk up, initially, just to fill a spot and make the team. “I was fairly agile and would attack the legs a lot,” he said. “In the heavyweight class, they move a lot slower but they’re a heck of a lot bigger when you try and move them.”

“With those big guys, I would shoot underneath them and swing out to the side.”

The strategy worked. Brightwell was OUAA champion four times (1977, 1979, 1980, 1981), adding the CIAU crown on two occasions (1980, 1981) and closing out his career not long after claiming gold at the 1986 Commonwealth Games.

As for the experience in Los Angeles, though he was disappointed in his performance on the mat, Brightwell still carries some very special memories. “Walking into the Olympic Stadium, it was huge, but it almost seemed small because the people were right down, maybe ten feet away, right there,” he said.

“I remember watching Alex Baumann and Victor Davis in the pool,” Brightwell added, noting that his lodging within the Athletes’ Village was on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC), minutes away from the McDonald’s Olympic Pool Stadium. “Davis was quite a showman in the pool and Baumann was so calm.”

“These were two very contrasting guys - it was really neat to see.”

Yet another Sudbury connection for Wayne Brightwell - make of it what you will.