Walter Fedorick

Walter Alexander Fedorick (30 January 1918 – 18 March 1989) was a Canadian long-distance runner. He competed in the marathon at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, finishing 23rd in a field of 41 entrants.

Biography

Fedorick was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was at his prime on the marathon scene from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s, though he was overshadowed by his compatriot, four-time Boston Marathon winner Gérard Côté, and also competed against the talented Lloyd Evans.

His first major victories came in 1946, when he became the Canadian national 10,000 m champion and won Hamilton's Around the Bay Road Race. In 1948, he finished seventh in the Boston Marathon (Côté won and Evans placed sixth) and placed second at the Olympic trials held in his hometown of Hamilton, behind Côté but ahead of Evans, qualifying him to represent Canada at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

After reclaiming the Canadian 10,000 m title in 1949, Fedorick competed at the 1950 British Empire Games, where he finished 10th in the marathon and 12th in the 6-mile event. He also won the 1950 Around the Bay Road Race. In 1951, he became the Canadian national marathon champion and placed third (as the highest-ranked Canadian) at the American nationals, after which he gradually stepped away from competitive racing.

Personal Best

• Marathon: 2:28:04 (1951)

Career

By profession, Fedorick worked for Procter & Gamble. He died on 18 March 1989 in Hamilton, Ontario, at the age of 71. (Note: Some sources, including Olympedia, list his year of death as 1979 at age 61.)

Olympic Results