at re-enactment of olympic flame's lighting, kingston's sailing future crosses paths with alumni of 1976 games
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in foreground at springer market square, kingston's sailing phenom will keilty, 15, holds aloft the olympic torch to be passed to james richardson, kneeling. at age 19 richardson lit the olympic flame at the opening ceremonies for the sailing competition of the 1976 summer games. the torch relay is one feature of sail canada's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1976 olympics in kingston on tuesday, aug. 12, 2026.
gare joyce
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the kingston whig-standard
springer market square late tuesday afternoon was the scene of the rarest of hand-offs: the torch being passed from the future to the past.
in this instance, the distance between the two is a chasm. the future could run whole decades ahead, while the past goes back half a century. conventional dynamics of kid and veteran don’t capture it.
the fact that it wasn’t a metaphorical torch, but the genuine, physical article was a callback to kingston’s hosting the 1976 olympic yachting competition.
sail canada staged a ceremonial torch-relay parade from the kingston yacht club to confederation park. a hearty bunch of celebrants including alumni followed the queen’s band along a route that wound along the waterfront, up to ontario st., and over to springer market square.
in the square, the band broke off the strains—“strains” being the appropriate word—of lipps inc.’s funkytown, for the moment of the final hand-off in the torch relay. (to the band’s credit, the players mostly opted for period hits, but alas funkytown dates to 1980.)
representing the sunny promise of tomorrow was will keilty, 15 and fresh off his beating more than 300 boats over a 12-race schedule to win the u.s. national optimist championships in beach haven, new jersey. earlier this summer keilty, whose family has had ties to the kingston yacht club for generations, finished seventh in the international optimist dinghy association (ioda) world championships in tangier, morocco.
keilty might be months away from driving lessons, but certainly could pass for younger. so too could the gent he was passing the torch to, james richardson, a year short of septuagenarian status. back in july 1976, olympic organizers had selected richardson to light the torch before the competition, an honour that represented a consolation prize when the 19-year-old richardson and his 39-year-old helmsman harry jemmett missed out on qualifying their tempest boat at the canadian trials that spring.
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keilty and richardson provided a stark physical contrast—the former looks the part of an apprentice jockey, while the latter remains an imposing man-mountain in the 99th percentile of fitness. (when he stopped to tie a shoe en route, richardson ran to catch up to the pack and might have scraped a five-second 40.) when the two posed for photos of the passing in the square, richardson took a knee to allow for easier framing.
“it’s pretty cool to be part of something honouring the history of sailing in kingston,” keilty said.
the penultimate torch carrier hopes to make history himself down the line and the canadian titles and the victory in new jersey will just be the earliest entries, however remarkable they might be — he became the first foreign sailor to win the u.s. nationals in the last 25 years. tia kinnear of halifax matched the feat in the girls’ division at the event.
keilty has already travelled far and wide for sailing—he’ll be heading to cyprus to compete this fall. “it’s going to be a lot of work to keep up in school when it comes to travel to train and compete in the next year,” he said. “i’ve learned that you have to be organized and stick to the plan to get the work done. my teachers have been great about helping me and working out a schedule, but i have to do the work.”
the consideration of an amateur sailor representing the country was in much shorter supply 50 years ago, according to another 1976 olympic alum who carried the torch as the parade made its way downtown.
michael de la roche, then a queen’s student who crewed for the canadian boat in the tornado class, found no such support from the faculty of commerce when he tried to arrange his schedule to squeeze in a trip to australia to train for the canadian trials and the games.
“i had planned on earning a commerce degree but i had to cross the hall and switch majors to economics to get my schedule approved,” de la roche said. “the message from the commerce department was literally, ‘your degree or the olympics.’ it was a different time—there really wasn’t any accommodation from schools and businesses for athletes, even olympics, with the olympics right here in the city.”
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and while keilty is looking to a career that will run years, decades even, de la roche, just 21 at the time, considered himself on the clock.
“the 1976 olympics were it for me,” he said. “there was no long-term plan, or looking ahead to other games. olympic sailing was in transition from amateurism to a full-time professionalism. the soviets had sailors whose sole duty and assignment was to train and compete. same with others in eastern europe. others had businesses around sailing. i just couldn’t commit to the travel for training and competition and time involved.”
back in ’76, de la roche and his helmsman larry woods finished seventh. they had a legitimate shot at the medals in the catamaran class—they led one race that would have put them in position for the bronze, but officials had to blow the horn and send the boats back to portsmouth harbour because of an error setting up the course.
“you have to be good, and you have to be lucky,” de la roche said.
more than a few alumni hit on that theme revisiting a bygone sailing event. full-time sailing approaching professionalism might have the day but the portions of quality and fortune remain the same.
note: on saturday, aug. 15, de la roche will be among those in attendance at portsmouth olympic harbour for sail canada’s community exhibition day. the event will run from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. and feature sailors, spectators and those who worked behind the scenes when kingston hosted the 1976 olympic yachting competition. the event will include the unveiling of a new permanent storyboard in the sailroom at portsmouth olympic harbour.
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