Joy (Ward) Fera

Joy (Ward) Fera, BRE [UBC] – Twice World Rowing Championship Bronze Medalist and Canada Winter Games Alpine Skiing Gold Medalist

Joy was born in Vernon, raised in Cranbrook and is probably the best all around female athlete Cranbrook has ever produced. Joy won gold in dual slalom at the 1971 Canada Winter Games, and represented Canada in Alpine Skiing at the 1972 FISU [World University Winter Games] in Lake Placid, NY.  Almost as important though, was being among the first girls to play ice hockey in Cranbrook in 1967-‘68!

A member of Canada’s Rowing Team at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Joy recorded a seventh-place finish in the Coxed Four. During the course of her career, she registered back-to-back bronze medal performances in the Eight at the 1977 and 1978 World Championships and helped her team to a fifth-place finish during the 1979 Worlds.  Following her retirement after the Moscow Olympic Boycott in 1980, Joy continued to be involved in the Olympic Movement, participating in the Olympic Academy of Canada in Halifax in 1987 and the International Olympic Academy in Greece in 1988. 

A member of the Olympians BC Board of Directors from 1998 - 2006, Joy was one of 28 Olympians contracted to promote Vancouver/Whistler during the Bid Phase for the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. Joy continues to stay heavily involved in rowing, having co-founded the Delta Deas Rowing Club in 1985 and chairs the annual high school regatta. 

In 2005, she placed fifth in the Mixed Doubles at the World Masters Games in Edmonton and was an umpire during the Canada Summer Games in Regina. Her 1978 Burnaby Lake Eight crew was inducted into the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. Joy has been a Whistler Weasel Worker volunteer for many years, most recently at the 2009 IPC World Cup Alpine Skiing Finals, but is looking forward to being a high speed slipper for 2010!  S

he consistently medals at the Canadian Masters Alpine Ski Championships, medaled at the 2008 International FIS Masters races in Banff and was named to the Canadian Masters Alpine Ski Team for 2008-’09 and 2009-‘10.