A Tale of Two Olympians: At the Intersection of Class, Blackness, and Amateurism in Canada, 1920s–1930s

In 1928, British Guiana-born Phil Edwards earned the first of his five Olympic medals, becoming the first Black person to medal for Canada. Four years later, Ray Lewis earned his first and only Olympic medal, becoming the first Black Canadian medalist. Edwards was a middle-distance intercollegiate champion and a medical school student who would go on to earn four more medals in 1932 and 1936; Lewis was a star sprinter working as a sleeping car porter. In exploring their paths to and from the Olympics, this article enquires into the complex intersection of race and class, interrogating the Black experience and social transformation through sport.