Nicholas Pucci
There really is so much anguish and melancholy in telling the short sporting and existential parable of Victor Davisa Canadian swimmer who was able to quickly reach the peaks of Olympus but just as quickly, and abruptly, was snatched from his life by a tragic fate.
Born in Guelph, in the province of Ontario, on February 10, 1964, Davis, winner of 36 national titles in his career, including 17 in the 100m and 14 in the 200m breaststroke, he rose to international prominence not yet 18 when, at the 1982 World Championships in Guayaquil, he took silver in the 100 breaststrokebeaten by only 0″07 cents (1’02″75 to 1’02″82) by the American Steve Lundquist, then win the race over the double distance with the new world record of 2’14″77 which improves the limit set by the British David Wilkie at the 1976 Montreal Games.
Ended the season with identical placings (silver on the 100m and gold on the 200m breaststroke) at the “Commonwealth GamesBrisbane 1982, Davis faces the Olympic year in top condition, appearing at the 1984 Los Angeles Games after breaking his own record in the 200m breaststroke, bringing it to 2’14″58.
In the Californian pool the outcome of the two specialty finals follows that of the world championship, with the Canadian having to succumb to Lundquist in the 100m breaststroke (who achieves the world championship with 1’01″65) despite in turn falling below 1’02” net (1’01″99 to be precise), and then largely redeem himself on the double distance where he improves his record for the third time by imposing himself in 2’13″34 with a large margin on the Australian Glenn Beringen, silver in 2’15″79, medals which, this time, also joins silver with the 4x100m medley relay behind the unbeatable quartet from the United States.
Davis maintains a high standard of performance also on the occasion of theCommonwealth Games” in Edinburgh in 1986, where however he reverses the medals with respect to four years earlier, making the gold in the 100 breaststroke in 1’03″01 ahead of the English Adrian Moorhouse who, on the contrary, precedes him over the double distance (2′ 16″35 to 2’16″70), with the Canadian in any case having the last word with success in the 4x100m medley relay right in front of England.
A month later, back in the water for the Madrid 1986 World Cup and, also on this occasion, Davis reverses the order of the medals won four years earlier in Ecuador, winning the gold in the 100 breaststroke in 1’02 “71 ahead of the blue Gianni Minervini by 0 “29 cents, to then succumb on the double distance in the match against the Hungarian Jozsef Szabowon by the latter in 2’14″27 against the 2’14″93 of the 22-year-old Canadian.
Davis bids farewell to competitive activity at the conclusion of the 1988 Seoul Gameswhere he finished on the edge of the podium in the 100 breaststroke won by Moorhouse in 1’02″04 and then complete your medal collection with silver with the 4x100m medley relayobviously in the wake of the United States.
Retired from the stage, Davis would have every right to spend his life illustrating his achievements in the tub, but meets a tragic appointment with death at the age of only 25 in an absurd and stupid way at the same time, run over at the exit of a nightclub by a car driven by a person with whom he had had an argument inside the club.
And since that day, November 13, 1989, just so much sadness to remember Victor Davis.