Terry Paul

Biography

Terry Paul made his Olympic debut as a coxswain at Seoul 1988 where he finished ninth in the coxed fours with Harold Backer, John Houlding, Robert Marland and Brian Saunderson. At Barcelona 1992, Paul was the coxswain of the Olympic gold medal eights crew where the Canadians edged ahead in the Olympic final at the half-way mark and held on to win by less than a foot over Romania in the closest rowing final in Olympic history – 0.14 seconds. In the boat with Paul was Darren Barber, Andy Crosby, Michael Forgeron Robert Marland, Derek Porter, Michael Rascher, Bruce Robertson and John Wallace.

Paul lead the eights crews to two World Championships silver medals in 1990 and 1991, behind Germany both times. His first major international competition was at the 1986 World Championships, where he finished eighth in the coxed pairs with Raymond Collier and Robert Marland. In the coxed fours at Worlds, he finished eighth in 1987 and 10th in 1989. 

Paul started rowing in grade nine at Peterborough Collegiate under coach Carol Love and Graham Wilkins. He joined the Peterborough Rowing Club and competed in rowing while a student at Brock University in St. Catharines from 1983-87. He moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1990 to be part of the national rowing program. Paul retired soon after Barcelona 1992, stayed in Victoria, and pursued a coaching career with positions at Cornell University and with the national teams of Canada and Switzerland. 

Paul was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1994 and Canadian Rowing Hall of Fame in 2017.