Fonds AFC371 - James Worrall Fonds

The Canadian Olympic Committee (C.O.C.) was founded in 1909, a separate division of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada; it was once known as the Central Olympic Committee. That same year, the International Olympic Committee recognized the C.O.C. as Canada's official Olympic body. The C.O.C. was officially declared independent from the A.A.U. of C. in 1949. The Canadian Olympic Committee helps promote Canadian locations as future Olympic venues, and provides financial and leadership support to Canadian Olympic athletes.

James Worrall was born in Bury, Lancashire, England in 1914 and immigrated to Canada in 1922. He graduated from McGill University and from MacDonald College in Montreal in 1935 and taught at Upper Canada College in Toronto before entering Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1941. After three years service in the Royal Canadian Air Force he returned to private legal practice in 1945. He continued to practice law, largely in civil litigation and criminal law, until 1976. He acted as counsel on two Federal Royal Commissions and served as an officer and director of several private companies, the Metropolitan Toronto Licensing Commission (as chairman for five years), the Land Compensation Board of Ontario, and the Ontario Municipal Board.

A high-school track and field award recipient, Worrall competed in track and field and water polo for McGill and held several inter-collegiate athletics records. He represented Canada at the 1934 British Empire Games in London and was a silver medalist in the hurdles. His connection with the Olympics dates from 1936 when he competed at the Berlin Summer Games in the 110m and 400m hurdles and where he was selected as the Canadian flag bearer for the opening ceremony. He qualified for the 1938 British Empire Games but withdrew in order to attend law school.

After World War Two Worrall re-established the Ontario Track and Field Committee of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada (AAUC) and served as its chair for several years. In 1947 he became a member of the AAUC Olympic Committee and was appointed Assistant Chef de Mission to the Canadian Team at the Olympic Games in London the following year. He became a charter member and later vice-president of the reorganized and independent Canadian Olympic Association (COA) in 1948 and served as Assistant Chef de Mission in Helsinki in 1952 and Chef de Mission in Melbourne and Rome in 1956 and 1960 respectively. He was elected President of the COA in 1961, serving in that capacity until 1968. He also served as Commissioner General of Olympic House at Expo 67 in Montreal. He was appointed Honorary Life President of the COA in 1989.

Worrall was appointed as a Canadian representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1967. In 1974 he served on the IOC Commission on Rhodesia and was elected to the Executive Board of the IOC, the first Canadian to be so recognized. He also chaired the Commission of the Revision of the Charter, a special commission that reviewed the Olympic Charter and associated rules and by-laws, the recommendations of which were adopted in 1990. In 1980 he ran unsuccessfully for the IOC Presidency. He retired as a voting member of the IOC in 1989 and was made an Honorary Member for life the same year.

As President of the COA and as an IOC member Worrall was involved with several applications by Canadian cities to host Pan American Games (Winnipeg 1967), Olympic Winter Games (Calgary 1964 and 1966; Vancouver 1970) and Olympic Summer Games (Montreal 1972 and 1976). He was a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the organizing committees for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. He was also a director of the Toronto Ontario Olympic Council (TOOC) during its unsuccessful bid for the 1996 Summer Games.

Worrall received many prestigious awards, including the IOC Medal of the Olympic Order in 1990, the Canadian Olympic Order in Gold in 1994, and the Order of Merit from the Association of National Olympic Committees, also in 1994. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976, was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as a builder and administrator in 1987, and was elected to the Winter Olympic Hall of Fame in 1991. Worrall published his autobiography, 'My Olympic Journey: Sixty Years with Canadian Sport and the Olympic Games', in 2000.

Worrall died at age 97 in October, 2011.