Archibald “Archie” MacKinnon, the Canadian Olympic champion and last surviving member of the University of British Columbia’s Cinderella Four, has died aged 89.
Rowing Canada Aviron announced his death on Friday, 4 September. MacKinnon, who was born in Cranbrook, British Columbia, on 13 January 1937, died on 28 August.
MacKinnon rowed at bow when Canada won the men’s coxless four at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The victory was Canada’s first Olympic rowing gold and began a run in which he also collected Commonwealth gold and Olympic silver.
“Archie MacKinnon and his teammates did far more than win Canada’s first Olympic gold medal in rowing – they established UBC as a Canadian stronghold for developing Olympic rowers, leaving a legacy that continues to this day,” UBC men’s head coach Mike Pearce said.
“Every UBC rower who has pursued the Olympic dream since has followed a path first forged by Archie and the amazing ‘Cinderella Four’.”
From Reserve to Olympic Champion
MacKinnon arrived at UBC in 1955 as an engineering student with minimal rowing experience, but the university’s programme had shaped his choice of destination.
“I told my Dad I wanted to go to UBC because they had a good rowing team,” he said in a 2022 UBC Athletics profile. “I would take the courses and go into engineering, but I went there specifically to row.”
Under the demanding Frank Read, MacKinnon initially trained as a spare for UBC’s eight. He then joined Donald Arnold, Walter D’Hondt and Lorne Loomer in a coxless four assembled from rowers outside the first-choice crew.
At the 1956 Canadian Olympic trials in St Catharines, the four covered 2,000 metres in 6:05.8. The BC Sports Hall of Fame records that their performance lowered a world record which had stood since 1928 by 30 seconds.
They carried that form to Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, where the Olympic rowing regatta was held. Canada recovered from a poor start in the final before passing Italy, France and the United States.
“Don Arnold never dropped the stroke, we just kept going,” MacKinnon later said.
The Canadians won in 7:08.8, finishing 9.6 seconds ahead of the United States and 12.1 seconds clear of France.
More Medals in the Eight
All four Melbourne champions moved into the UBC/Vancouver Rowing Club eight that won gold at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.
Two years later, MacKinnon raced in the Canadian men’s eight that took silver at the Rome Olympics. The crew recorded 6:01.52 in the final, and its silver was Canada’s only medal of the Games.
After earning his electrical engineering degree at UBC, MacKinnon completed an MBA at York University’s Schulich School of Business. His subsequent business career included senior roles in the telecommunications and investment sectors.
MacKinnon and his Melbourne crewmates were inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the BC Sports Hall of Fame and the UBC Sports Hall of Fame. The Cinderella Four entered the Canadian Rowing Hall of Fame in 2018.
