Deborah Dawn "Debbie" Scott-Bowker (born 16 December 1958) is a Canadian former middle- and

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance ru ...

. A three-time Olympian for Canada (1984, 1988 and 1992), she reached the 1500 m final in 1984, and both the 1500 m and 3000 m finals in 1988. She was also a three-time

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

finalist, reaching the 1500 m and 3000 m finals in 1987, and the 1500 m final in 1991. Her greatest international performance came at the

1985 IAAF World Indoor Games The World Indoor Games were arranged by the IAAF and held at the Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from January 18 to January 19, 1985. In 1987 the championship was renamed to the IAAF World Indoor Championships and gained official st ...

(the precursor of the

IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the ''World Indoor G ...

), where she took the gold medal in the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000 m sho ...

. Scott-Bowker competed at four

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

(1978–90), winning silver medals at the

1986 Commonwealth Games The 1986 Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 24 July and 2 August 1986. This was the second Commonwealth Games to be held in Edinburgh. Thirty two of the eligible fifty nine countries (largely African, Asian and Caribbe ...

in the 1500 m and 3000 m, and another silver in the 1500 m at the

1987 Pan American Games The 1987 Pan American Games, officially known as the X Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event held in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, on August 7–23, 1987. Over 4,300 athletes from 38 countries in the Americas ...

. She also competed for Canada at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships on five occasions – her best placing at that event was eighth in 1981.

Career

Early career and college

Born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

,Debbie Scott-Bowker
Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-10-16. she attended

Claremont Secondary School Claremont Secondary School (CSS) is a public secondary school in Saanich, a municipality of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is operated by School District 63 Saanich. CSS is one of three secondary schools in the school district an ...

and was interested in sports, taking part in

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

while there. During her training for these sports, her talent for

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...

was recognised by her teacher and he encouraged her to become part of the school's

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

team.Debbie Scott-Bowker (2001)
. Great Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2014-10-16.Kelsall, Christopher (2013-06-15)
Debbie Scott (Bowker) – Victoria Track Classic
. ''Athletics Illustrated''. Retrieved on 2014-10-16. She went on to attend the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

and competed athletically for the

Victoria Vikes The Victoria Vikes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Victoria of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in both men's and women's U Sports. ''Vikes'' was previously a longstanding nickname for both the men's teams (previously th ...

collegiate team in 1976 and from 1978 to 1981.Hall of Fame Debbie Scott
Go Vikes Go. Retrieved on 2014-10-16. She won her first title at the British Columbia Cross Country Championships in 1977 and the Scott went on to win at that competition twice more during her period at college. She established herself among her nation's best distance runners in 1978 by setting a Canadian record over the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...

, running a time of 16:29.6 minutes.Canadian Track Record Progression
Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 2014-10-16. Her first major international event was the

1978 Commonwealth Games The 1978 Commonwealth Games were held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from 3 to 12 August, two years after the 1976 Summer Olympics was held in Montreal, Quebec. They were boycotted by Nigeria, in protest at New Zealand's sporting contacts with a ...

and she ran in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilomet ...

(being eliminated in the heats) and the

(coming ninth in the final).Commonwealth Games Debbie Scott-Bowker
Commonwealth Games Federation. Retrieved on 2014-10-16. Her next major outing came at the

1979 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 1979 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Limerick, Ireland, at the Greenpark Racecourse on 25 March 1979. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald. Complete results for men, junior men, women, medallists, ...

, where she led the Canadian women's team with a 13th-place finish.Debbie Scott-Bowker
IAAF. Retrieved on 2014-10-16. She was selected for the

1980 Moscow Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

, but a Canadian boycott of the event meant she did not compete. The 1981 World Cross Country was held over a shorter distance and she gave a better performance, placing eighth and leading her national team to fifth in the rankings. She won her first national title at the

Canadian Track and Field Championships The Canadian Track and Field Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organized by Athletics Canada, which serves as the Canadian national championships for the sport. The championships serve as part of the selection proces ...

that year, winning the 1500 m race, and would go on to take five straight titles up to 1985.Canadian Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-10-16. She also began competing on the international circuit and ran a best of 4:33.02 minutes for the

mile run The mile run (1,760 yards, 5,280 Foot (unit), feet, or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance running, middle-distance foot race. The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling ...

at the

DN Galan BAUHAUS-galan, formerly known as DN-Galan is an annual, international athletics meeting that takes place at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. Previously it was one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events until 2010, and has since been part of th ...

in Sweden, taking third place.Debbie Bowker
Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2014-10-16.

National records and Olympic debut

In 1982 she won the

Fifth Avenue Mile The Fifth Avenue Mile is an annual road race on Fifth Avenue in New York City, United States. The race begins at 80th Street and heads twenty blocks south to 60th Street. First held on September 26, 1981, the race is currently organized by ...

in a course record of 4:23.96 minutes, becoming the first non-American winner. She broke two Canadian records on the track that summer. First came the 5000 m record with a time of 15:48.99 minutes at the Prefontaine Classic – a near ten second improvement on Geri Fitch's time set the previous year. Then, in August in

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

, she broke Thelma Wright's 3000 m national record from 1975 with a run of 8:48.85 minutes. Scott-Bowker's first and only win over 3000 m at the national championships also came that year. Her major competition of the year was the

1982 Commonwealth Games The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Australia, from 30 September to 9 October 1982. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named after Elizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan. The QEII Stadium was also the ...

and she had similar results as she had four years previously, losing in the 1500 m heats and reaching the 3000 m final. After a quiet 1983, she re-emerged at the 1984 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, but her 64th-place finish was below her usual standard, while Lynn Williams led the Canadian team. Her Olympic debut followed at the

1984 Los Angeles Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

, where she entered the 1500 m. After running a personal best of 4:09.16 minutes in the heats she placed tenth in the final.

International medals

Scott-Bowker had her first major success at the

. The newly inaugurated indoor

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

championship saw her defeat reigning European indoor champion Agnese Possamai to become the first 3000 m women's champion. Her winning time of 9:04.99 minutes was also a Canadian indoor record, easily bettering the previous mark of Nancy Tinari. She improved her personal best for the outdoor event at the DN Galan, running 8:49.80 minutes. On grass, Scott-Bowker had a good showing at the

1985 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 1985 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Sports Complex of Jamor on March 24, 1985. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald. Complete results for men, junior men, women, medallis ...

– in eleventh place she led the Canadians to fifth place in the team race. Expanding her oeuvre, she ran in the 10 km distance at the

Vancouver Sun Run The Vancouver Sun Run, owned by Run Vancouver Holdings ULC and sponsored by ''The Vancouver Sun'' newspaper, is a 10-kilometre road running event held in Vancouver every year on the third (sometimes the fourth) Sunday in April since 1985. It is ...

in a time of 33:31 minutes.Vancouver Sun Run 10 km
ARRS (2014-04-29). Retrieved on 2014-10-16. That year she married her college coach, Ron Bowker, and began competing under that name from 1986 onwards. International medals continued over the following two seasons. At the

she was double silver medallist in the 1500 m and 3000 m (narrowly finishing behind compatriot Lynn Williams in the latter event). The

brought another 1500 m silver medal, as she finished behind American Linda Sheskey. She made her fifth and final world cross appearance at the 1986 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, but was some way down the field in 64th place as Canada dropped out of the top ten teams.. AthChamps (2007-02-08). Retrieved on 2014-10-16. Her first world track appearance came at the

1987 World Championships in Athletics The 2nd World Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations were held in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy between August 28 and September 6, 1987. Men's results Track 1983 , 1987 , ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and she was a finalist in both the 1500 m and 3000 m events, placing eleventh and thirteenth respectively.

Later international career

She was chosen for the Canadian Olympic team for the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

and ran two personal bests in the heats. She ran a career best of 8:43.81 minutes to reach the 3000 m final, where she was nearly half a minute slower in 15th place. A new best of 4:07.08 followed in the 1500 m heats, but again she was somewhat slower in the final, this time taking twelfth. With no major events in 1989, her next major tournament was the

1990 Commonwealth Games The 1990 Commonwealth Games () were held in Auckland, New Zealand from 24 January – 3 February 1990. It was the 14th Commonwealth Games, and part of New Zealand's 1990 sesquicentennial celebrations. Participants competed in ten sports: at ...

. Although she failed to medal on her fourth appearance at the games, she still managed to place sixth in the 1500 m final. That year she won the Vancouver Sun Run for the second time in her career. At the age of 32, she ran a 1500 m personal best at the

1991 World Championships in Athletics The 3rd World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan between August 23 and September 1. 1517 athletes from 167 countries partic ...

in Tokyo and matched her overall placing from her last outing at the event, ending in eleventh. The last global outing of her career was a third Olympic selection – at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

she was a 1500 m semi-finalist.

Personal bests

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

: 2:01.48 min (1986) *

1000 metres The 1000 metres, 1 kilometer run, or 1K run is an uncommon middle-distance running event in track and field competitions. It consists of two and a half laps around an outdoor 400 m track, or five laps around an indoor 200 m track. The 1000 ...

: 2:38.30 min (1986) *

: 4:05.07 min (1991) *

Mile run The mile run (1,760 yards, 5,280 Foot (unit), feet, or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance running, middle-distance foot race. The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling ...

(track): 4:29.67 min (1982) * Mile run (road): 4:23.96 min (1982) *

2000 metres The 2000 metres or 2000-metre run is a track running event where five laps are completed around an outdoor 400 m track, or ten laps around a 200 m indoor track - the distance is 11.68 meters short of 1¼ miles. The global governing body World At ...

: 5:39.96 min (1986) *

: 8:43.81 min (1988) ** 3000 m indoor: 9:04.99 min (1985) *

: 15:48.99 min (1982)

Achievements

*7-time Canadian 1500m champion (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1991) *1982 Canadian 3000m champion

References

External links