Knowles, Darvard

In 1948, he made his debut at the London Olympics at the age of 30, playing for the UK in the Star Class in a carriage with Sloan Farrington (4th place). At the same time, in the first five races at the Games, the British crew, which won gold in the World Championship in 1947, took the second place three times and really claimed for awards, but Knowles and Farrington left the winners behind in the last two races. The Bahamas Olympic Association was created in 1952 (the Bahamas became an independent state only in 1973), and at the 1952 Games Knowles and Farrington represented the Bahamas (fifth place). In 1956, they managed to win the Olympic bronze in the Star class (the first ever Olympic award for athletes of the Bahamas in all sports), and in 1960 they became sixth. In 1959, Knowles and Farrington won the gold of the Pan American Games in the Star class.

In October 1964, Knowles, along with his fellow countryman Cecil Cook, won gold at the Tokyo Games . In competitions off the coast of Enoshima in the Gulf of Sagama, the Bahamian crew on a Gem yacht won 3 of 7 races in the Star class and was ahead of the American and Swedish yachtsmen in second and third places. This gold was the first in the history of the Bahamas at the Olympic Games in all sports. The next time, Bahamian athletes managed to win Olympic gold only in 2000 in the women's 4 × 100 m relay. However, Knowles and Cook were the only men who won Olympic gold until 2012 in the Bahamas (Bahamian athletes won gold at the Games in London in the relay 4 × 400 m).

In 1968, at the Olympics, Darvard spoke with his stepbrother Percy , they became the fifth, although after five races out of seven they really claimed for awards. In 1972, in Kiel (as part of the Summer Games in Munich), the 54-year-old Darvard Knowles, along with Montag Higgs, took only 13th place among 18 crews. In 1974, at the age of 56, he became the bronze medalist of the World Championship in the Star class along with Gerald Ford. Knowles missed the 1976, 1980, and 1984 Olympics. In 1988, in Seoul, the 70-year-old Knowles unexpectedly returned to the Games. He carried the Bahamas flag at the opening ceremony. In a carriage with 33-year-old Stephen, Kelly Knowles became the 19th among the 21st team. For Knowles, these Games became the eighth in his career, and he repeated the record for the number of participation in the Olympics, set in 1976 by the Italian equestrian brothers D'Inzeo (the famous Danish yachtsman Paul Elvström also played for the eighth time in his career). The record in 1996 was broken by the Austrian yachtsman Hubert Raudashl .

In 1996, Darward became a knight, in 1997 he was awarded the Bahamian Order of Merit. In 2014, the Bahamas Naval Ship was named after Darvard Knowles. In May 2016, after the death of the 103rd year of life of the former Hungarian water polo player Sandor Tarich Knowles, he became the oldest living Olympic champion ^[1] .

He died on February 24, 2018 ^[2] .

Darvard Percy's stepbrother (born 1930) was also a yachtsman and performed at the four Olympic Games (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972), in 1968 they performed in the Star class together (fifth place). Sons Percy Bruce and Andy performed in swimming at the 1976 Olympics, while Andy's son and granddaughter of Darward Jeremy Knowles played for the Bahamas in swimming at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

• List of Athletes with the Most Participation in the Olympics
• Bahamas at the Olympics
• Elvstrom, Paul
• Raudashl, Hubert

• Darward Knowles - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com