Charmaine Crooks

Five-time Olympian and 1984 Olympic silver medallist Charmaine Crooks represented Canada for almost 20 years in athletics. The first Canadian woman to run the 800 metre distance in under two minutes, she has won gold medals at the Pan American, Commonwealth, World Cup, and World Student Games.

In 1996, she was named Canada’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. After participating in her fifth consecutive Olympic Games in Atlanta, Crooks was elected as a member of the IOC Athletes Commission and served as an IOC member until 2004.

Currently a member of the IOC Press Commission, Crooks continues to serve on the IOC Athletes Commission as a representative of the World Olympians Association Executive Board. As a founding member of the independent IOC Ethics Commission, she contributed to the development of the IOC Code of Ethics and was a member of the IOC 2000 Reform Commission. In March 2006, Crooks was presented with the IOC Women and Sport Trophy for the Americas in recognition of her efforts towards supporting gender equity in high performance sport.

As a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee's Executive Board and the current chair of Olympians Canada, Crooks played an integral role in Toronto's 2008 Olympic Games Bid. She also participated as a board member for the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation.

Crooks is President and Founder of NGU Consultants, a sports marketing, promotion and production company that develops and creates entertainment programming as well as provides strategic counsel for companies and athletes on a global basis. She also has been a freelance television personality since 1993, working with CBC, TSN, CTV, Fox Sportsnet and European TV as an analyst, host or commentator for a number of sport and variety programs.

Since 2001, Crooks has been a member of the Advisory Board of AIM/Trimark Mutual Funds, and is a member of its Governance Committee. In 2002, the federal government appointed her to the board of trustees of the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Crooks has received numerous awards for athletic leadership, among them her 2003 induction into the BC Sports Hall of Fame and her inclusion in 2004 as one of the “Top 50 Women of Power in Canada.”

Born in Jamaica, Crooks immigrated to Canada at the age of six. She attended the University of Texas El Paso on athletic scholarship, graduating with a degree in psychology. Crooks currently lives in North Vancouver with her husband, Anders Thorsen.