Waterloo alumna Blackwood achieves dreams both on and beyond the track
Burlington, Ont. (via David DiCenzo) - There are times when an individual’s future path becomes obvious. Faye Blackwood is an example.
The decorated track and field star reached incredible heights in her athletic career, including gold medals at the 60m and 100m hurdles in the 1986 Canadian national championships. Blackwood has built on those accomplishments off of the track with her inspirational work coaching disabled athletes over the past three decades, as well as an important advisory role at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport.
She knew at a young age that performing on the track was her destiny.
“I remember running at the public school field day in grade three or four,” says Blackwood, a native of Toronto and self-proclaimed ‘west-end girl.’ “I was beating all of the kids in my class. Boys and girls.”
The oldest of Joyce and Ronald Blackwood’s three girls (sisters Christine and Bobbie), she was drawn to the sport. Blackwood admired the American sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who overcame polio to win Olympic gold in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m competitions in 1960 when the global competition was held in Rome. The path forward was cemented when she met Si Mah from the North York Track Club. Mah saw Blackwood compete and asked if she wanted to join.
“I trained with the club for a couple of years,” she says. “My father would drive me over to the club after he was done work. Then in high school, when I went to Silverthorn Collegiate, I moved to the Etobicoke Track and Field Club, and had a new coach, who was from our rival school Vincent Massey Collegiate Institute.”
Blackwood raised her levels and evolved into a budding star, eventually moving to the Kitchener-Waterloo Track and Field Club, an organization known for producing standout national-level stars in the 1980s, like Dr. Andrea (Page) Steen, Michael Forgrave, Sylvia Forgrave, Neville Douglas, and Andrea Town. By then, she was receiving attention from people immersed in the national scene, coaches intrigued with her obvious abilities and potential. Blackwood’s coach at KW Track was Brent McFarlane, who also held the role of National Hurdles Coach. McFarlane introduced Blackwood to a professor at the University of Waterloo, which marked the first connection with the institution where she would forge a Hall of Fame varsity career.
“Just like that, I was going to UW, studying Kinesiology,” says Blackwood. “I loved the group of athletes I trained with. We worked very hard and had a lot of success.”
Blackwood was a standout at Waterloo, the very definition of a student-athlete. She was diligent in meeting her academic responsibilities and relentless when representing the Warriors. There were days it just all clicked, like during a meet at York University when she produced a personal best time in the 300m hurdles, which she described as “amazing and effortless.” From 1976 to 1981, Blackwood won six OUA gold medals and eight silvers, in addition to a national gold medal with her UW sprint medley relay teammates in 1981.
But like many athletes, Blackwood experienced inevitable lows. She began her tenure with the Canadian National Athletics team in 1983 and was committed to making it to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. But in the leadup to the world’s biggest athletics event, disaster struck. Blackwood was running at the Olympic Trials in Winnipeg when she fell and broke her wrist, ending her dream of competing in Los Angeles.
“I remember hitting the ninth hurdle and not finishing the race,” Blackwood says, the image still clear in her mind. “I didn’t make the team.”
While devastating at the time, Blackwood bounced back. She poured everything into her training and competitions. Two years later, she was rewarded for her work. Blackwood was crowned national champion in the 60m and 100m hurdles and also earned the opportunity to represent Canada at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.
By the time Blackwood finished university, she was already planning her future work. She trained and worked at Scarborough’s Variety Village, a recreational facility for people with disabilities. Blackwood began coaching, exhibiting the same energy for passing on knowledge that she had when anticipating the gun in the starting blocks. She was a natural leader, who brought the best out of her athletes. Under Blackwood’s guidance, many went on to make Canadian teams that competed at Paralympic Games from 1992 to 2000. Like on the track, she has been recognized in her coaching career. Blackwood has received the 3M Coaching Award (1990), Ontario Female Coach of the Year (1997), the Wittnauer Coaching Excellence Award (1998), and the Ontario Amputee and Les Autres Coach of the Year award (1999).
“Their disabilities are not an issue, because to them, it’s normal,” says Blackwood. “Athletes with a disability just want to be the best that they can be.”
Blackwood continues to work hard in her role as a Sport and Recreation Consultant, supporting and advising 13 provincial organizations in her portfolio. She remains passionate about track and field, crediting the sport for allowing her “to be the person that I am today.” Blackwood currently coaches at the Toronto-based I Be Fast Track Club and admittedly lost it with excitement when the Canadian men’s 4x100 relay team won gold at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Driven by the accomplishments of historic figures, like the Tuskegee Airmen and the incomparable Dr. Martin Luther King, Blackwood is reminded that dreams are meant to be pursued. She has done just that, both on the track and beyond.
“Sport is a way of life, for life,” Blackwood says.
