Victor Davis 1964-1989

Victor Davis, CM died in 1989 at the age of 25 after being run over by an automobile outside a nightclub in Montreal. A few months earlier he had announced his retirement as an Olympic Athlete. Death at the hands of a hit-and-run driver seems a tawdry ending to a mercurial Olympic Career. It also serves to highlight the lack of counseling given elite athletes to prepare them for the eventuality that their careers will be washed up at such a young age. A few years ago I just happened to be listening to a CBC talk show on the subject of grief counseling when his Mother called in to talk about the heartbreaking task of cleaning up the pieces of the life of a young man who should have lived for decades to come and as a consequence had left so many loose ends behind. I remember the host being overwhelmed by the extent of the emotion expressed and expressing surprise that the Davises were not extended better resources to deal with their grief and wrap up his estate. More recently one of his swim mates, Mark Tewksbury, has been in the news after coming out of the closet as a gay. Although keeping such a circumstance under wraps in a male locker room would add extra tensions to any life his autobiography has also served to highlight the challenges of making a life for oneself after the cheering fades. Mark will be forty in just a couple weeks.

This morning in reading the online TV Guide I discovered that tonight CBC is airing a 2-hour movie tribute to the life of Victor Davis. For unknown reasons it is being released two months pre-maturely. To play the part of Victor Davis the producers were fortunate in finding a Canadian Actor who could also swim with a physique to do justice to the original in the person of Mark Lutz:

Apparently even the CBC finds it useful to publicize it’s movies on My Space:

http://www.myspace.com/victordavisfilm

For further information see the IMDB page:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840024/