Rowing Canada Aviron announced today, Feb. 29, that former University of Victoria rower Derek Porter (Belfast, Northern Ireland) will join the 2023 Canadian Rowing Hall of Fame class. A world champion, three-time Olympian, and Olympic gold and silver medalist, Porter had a legendary rowing career.

Porter achieved swift success in the men's single by winning gold at the 1993 World Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic followed by an Olympic silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA. Derek was previously inducted into the Canadian Rowing Hall of Fame as the stroke of the 1992 Olympic gold medal men's eight.

A graduate in kinesiology, Porter attended the University of Victoria from 1985-1990, where he joined the Vikes rowing program in his second year. In 1989, Porter competed for the first time with the Canadian National Rowing program and also earned his first international gold with the men's eight at the 1989 San Diego Crew Classic. In the same year, Porter brought home a bronze medal from the US Nationals. 

Shortly after Porter took up rowing at UVic, he was on top of the podium winning a gold medal in the men's eights at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. In 1993, he switched to single sculls and within a year became the first Canadian male in 75 years to win a gold at the world championship.

At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Porter finished with a silver medal in the single scull. In the 1999 Winnipeg Pan American Games, Porter won a gold medal for Canada in the single sculls. Porter's father, Hugh, was also a rowing champion, rowing to bronze in the eight-oared race for the United Kingdom in the 1958 Commonwealth Games.

Porter is a UVic Sports Hall-of-Famer and a two-time inductee into the BC Sports Hall of Fame, with a team and as an individual, and was also honoured through the Order of BC.

Following a closely raced fourth-place finish at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games, Porter retired from rowing and focused on his career as a chiropractor. 

The Canadian Rowing Hall of Fame recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of Canadian rowers at the highest levels of the sport, and those whose efforts have contributed directly to those results. These individual stories serve as inspirations to Canadians and others, and will help to promote the sport and its amazing history.