John Felton

Who is John Felton?

John Felton is an Australian slalom canoer who competed from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. He finished 14th in the C-2 event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

John Felton commenced canoeing in 1974, he subsequently competed internationally from 1979 - 1983 when he retired having won a Commonwealth Title and having finished as high as 4th in the World Championships. After Canoe Slalom was readmitted to the Olympic Games in 1992 he came out of retirement in 1993 and teamed up again with Andrew Wilson for a shot at the Atlanta Olympic Games. After qualifying for the Games and 4 weeks before the start he broke 2 ribs in a training accident in Augsburg, Germany. They went on to finish 14th at the 1996 Olympics.

After these Games the then Minister for The Olympics - Michael Knight threw the sport of canoe slalom out of the Olympic Games. The International Canoe Federation approached John to head the project to have canoe slalom readmitted to the Olympic Program. Felton was successful and in August 1997 slalom was readmitted.