Swimming Canada “Circle of Excellence” inductee George Gate has passed away in Pierrefonds, Quebec after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Gate was 89.
Gate was a coach on the staff of the 1968 Canadian Olympic Team, and that doesn’t even begin to tell the story of his contribution to the sport. An indication of his success across almost 50 years as a professional in swimming is that three of his swimmers would go on to be Olympic coaches themselves.
In the 1960’s, Gate took over as the coach in Ocean Falls, British Columbia, where his swimmers made up half of the 1964 Canadian Olympic Team. He would then go on to coach at the Montreal Athletic Association and at the Point-Claire Swim Club.
He was a 1982 Aquatic Hall of Fame Canada inductee, a 1983 Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame inductee, and a 1989 International Swimming Hall of Fame inductee.
Gate’s full resume is below:
Statsistics
Olympic Coach: 1968
Commonwealth Games Coach: 1954
Pan American Games Coach: 1963
World Championships Coach: 1973
Maccabiah Games Coach: 1977, 1981
Head Coach Aquatic Director of Ocean Falls, B.C.: 1950-1964
Head Coach Aquatic Director Montreal Amateur Athletic Association: 1964-1966
Head Coach Aquatic Director at Pointe Claire: 1966 to 1990’s
Selected 7 times as Head Coach for Canada’s National swim teams (1954-1985)
1982 Aquatic Hall of Fame Canada
1983 Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame
1989 International Swimming Hall of Fame
A great coach with an outstanding career of succes wherever he went. Check out where Ocean Falls is really isolated. A terrific person to be around with such a knowledge of the sport. A great setup at Pointe Claire. Was fortunate to attend there first weekend Jan in the 70’s a few times. They had Kornelia Ender and a couple others there 6 months before the games in July that year in Montreal. Enjoyed talking swimming stories in his office between sessions wirh my cohort a Frank and he great at entertaining. Also a number of coaches got their start with him as assistants.