Walter Spence

Who was Walter Spence?

Walter Percy Spence was a swimmer from British Guiana who competed for Canada in the 1928 Summer Olympics and 1932 Summer Olympics. He immigrated to the United States and held several national swimming titles there.

Spence was born in Christianburg, British Guiana, the oldest of eight children—four brothers and four sisters. His father was Scottish and worked as a big game hunter and guide, while his mother was Indian. The Spences would swim in the Demerara River; six family members bore scars from piranha bites suffered while swimming there. Walter and two of his younger brothers, Wallace and Leonard, became champion swimmers. Two of the four Spence sisters also swam competitively, although not at the level of their brothers. The youngest Spence brother, Harold, showed great promise but was killed in action in World War II before his swimming career could take off.

After becoming the top swimmer in British Guiana, Walter Spence moved to Trinidad and began competing there. After losing a freestyle race to a swimmer from Chicago, his first-ever loss in that type of competition, Spence decided to pursue training in the United States.