John Baxter

John was born and grew up in the Maxville area and attended Maxville High School. He was a member of the school’s interscholastic teams in football, his favourite sport, basketball and softball.

Following high school, John left in 1966 for Sudbury at the age of 19 to embark on a mining career. Employed as a miner for eight years with Falconbridge Nickel Mines, his life would dramatically change in an 1974 incident.

In July of that year, John lost his sight in both eyes when he was involved in a premature blast. For the next year, he lay in a hospital bed recuperating and there pondered his future. In 1975, John, wife Suzanna and daughter Janet returned home to reside in the Maxville area.

Five years later, he decided to compete in the Regional Games for the Physically Disabled in Cornwall, competing in the shotput, discus and javelin events.

Though he enjoyed competing in track and field events, he developed a keen interest in powerlifting. In 1984, he competed in blind sports in the powerlifting category.

For the next few years until the present time, John became a dominant figure as a powerlifter in the Ontario Blind Sports Association. Despite his handicap, he is recognized as one of the top blind athletes in the world.

As a blind athlete, John is the defending world heavy weight champion in powerlifting and is the fourtime Canadian champion. He is also the five-time United States national champion.

John’s involvement in the Ontario Blind Sports Association has gone beyond the field of competition. After serving as a director on the association’s board in 1982-83, he has been the president since 1984.

He has won provincial intermediate championships, the Canadian Master’s title (40 years and over) and has won three open championships in able-body events.

John’s proudest moments in powerlifting came recently at the Provincial Championships for the Physically Disabled in Toronto.

He attained personal best records in powerlifting at the championships with a combined lift of 1,476 pounds. The individual marks were 606 pounds in the squat, 298 in the benchpress and 584 in the deadlift.

With the combined total, he qualified as a Class II lifted for the Canadian Master’s Championships in 1989. John trained out of Pattyn’s Gym in Alexandria and he credited much of his success to Ron Pattyn, the former owner of the gym who encouraged him to compete as a powerlifter in blind sports and abled body events.