Honoured Members Database

The sports fraternity is dependent on people who will put in the many hours to organize activities and most sports are blessed with competitors who are willing to put something back into the games they play. Gordon Konantz is one of those special people.

At Thunder Bay in 1956, Gord Konantz was elected President of the new Loch Lomond Ski Club, a major resort at the Lakehead. Back in Winnipeg, his leadership abilities were quickly recognized and in 1961-62 he was President of the Puffin Ski Club, which merged with the Winnipeg Ski Club in 1962. He became Chairman of the Manitoba Division of the Canadian Ski Association in 1967-68; he and Gary Coopland formed the Junior Jackrabbit Ski Program of Manitoba in 1975 (now a national organization); President of the Cross Country Ski Association of Manitoba from 1976 to 1985, Chairman of the National Ski Team Committee and a Director of Cross Country Canada in 1980-81 and a member of the committee in 1981-82.

Konantz has been President of the Manitoba Sailing Association and Director of the Canadian Yachting Association (1974 to 1976). He was also a member of the Pan Am Games Committee in Winnipeg in 1967. He was a Director of the Manitoba Sports Federation from 1981 to 1983 and Chairman of the Manitoba Foundation for Sports.

He competed in the National Alpine Ski Championships in 1962, and from 1965 to 1968 and in the National Cross-Country Ski Championships in 1979, in the Norwegian Birkebeiner Ski Marathon in 1977 and 1979, in the U.S. Birkebeiner from 1975 on, in the Canadian Masters Cross-Country Ski Championships in 1980 and 1981 and in many other cross-country events.