Rupert we got to keep this site rolling…charlie will be deeply missed here and in the track and field world. very very sad news…very sad
Sorry to hear that
RIP
I always thought he got a raw deal with the Dubin inquiry and from the media. In a sport rife with drug use he was IMO unfairly singled out.
All in the name of political correctness of course
Couldn’t have said it better.
For those in Toronto funeral arrangements will be held at the Humphrey Funeral Home — A.W. Miles Chapel:
http://www.humphreymiles.com/home
RIP Charlie
God bless you
i agree we should all ensure this site keeps going spreading the coaching of charlie, im sure any contributions required will be happily made. RIP great man
RIP, Charlie.
I did not know Charlie personally and I can say the news pretty much brought me to tears. Not just for his family, but also the diehard athletic community who know what an amazing person Charlie was and the wealth of knowledge that he shared without hesitation.
Losing my own father to cancer my condolences go out to Charlie’s family and hope they can get some solace that he was loved by so many people. Even people like me who never met him but respected him for the very great things he achieved in his lifetime.
Thanks Charlie I will miss you
For those of you more involved daily with the site, I am sad. I hope you continue to make Charlie’s work available. Let me know if I can help.
I wish I could jump on a plane and get to Canada. Unfortunately I can not, as I have a father who has just had surgery for prostate cancer. So to our the CF forum family members who are attending funeral, you are representing the members of this family.
I will be traveling to Toronto on Sunday to spend time with family and friends of Charlie and to honour the man himself. Let me know if there are any messages that any of you would like passed onto them. I’m sure that you would all like to be there in person.
I will be working hard over the next few years to make sure Charlie’s ideas, ingenuity and coaching leadership are able to reach all who will listen. I have hours upon hours of video footage and conversations recorded that will help to shed even more light on Charlie’s unsurpassed knowledge and intuition. I will make sure to work along with his family to appropriately pay tribute to Charlie for years to come.
Number 2, you are a great guy. I am glad that Charlie will be able to live on through this forum, through the info you pass on, and for being there for Ange and James. I have nothing but respect for you and what you are doing. I am going to try to get up there for the funeral. I know ESTI plans on going. I am not sure my school schedule will permit it. I will call Ange when things settle down if you could tell her that. I will pray for Ange, James, and Charlie.
#2
ive cut and pasted this from the other thread. if you could please pass on the jist of it and just let his family and friends know that there so many of us out there that no one knows about that Charlie inspired and supported as we fumble towards greatness. thanks and all the best nightmare4d
"topcat said it best on the first page, Charlie will live on through us.
i cant even put into words how much this man influenced me as a strength and conditioning coach and more importantly as a man. he believed in me way before i did. i think of all the people i have helped over the last 5 years and none of them would have had my guidance and inspiration if CF hadnt told me to “pull my head out of my ass and get on with it already”. something about his passing is hitting me harder than i would have expected, its the pain that lets us know it real i guess.
my love, support and prayers go out to his family, fellow coaches, friends, forum members and especially the old school forum guys like clemson, herb, number2 etc that were here way before it was the place to be.
God Speed
bobby kwasny aka nightmare4d "
A short tribute to Charlie and a small photo collage can be seen at the following blog:
www.conditioningforoptimumresults.blogspot.com
We hosted this seminar a couple of years ago and I believe it may have been one of the last events Charlie spoke at. Our heart felt prayers go out to Charlie and family!
Never met him,wished I had.
I did ,however speak with him through this forum over the last six years or so and was struck by his generosity,vast knowledge of running,ability to communicate,his wicked sense of humour,his disdain for "bull-shit"and lastly but most importantly his obvious courage.
Thank you Charlie.
My deepest sympathy to Ange and james.
OMG! I just saw the news article!
Derek,
I for one would be happy if we were able to persuade the journalist Mike Hurst to prepare something on my / our behalf. They appear to have had a close relationship and Mike posted a nice article at
I have edited bits from that which to me could possibly from the basis of something.
[i]Like 10,824 members of his internet coaching forum (charliefrancis.com), I am shocked and saddened.
Especially saddened at the news agency reports that typically dismiss Charlie as “the coach who gave dope to Ben Johnson, the first Olympic champion ever to be disqualified”. The charge was true and, to his credit, he never denied it.
By the brilliance of his mind and the strength of his personality, Charlie turned coaching on its head, in much the same way that he exposed the great track and field swindle at the Dubin Inquiry with the use of facts.
With his interpretation of science-based facts related to the physiology of exercise, Charlie - through personal consultations, training manuals, books (notably Speed Trap) and DVDs - has influenced every athlete who has run 100m in 9.8sec or faster, whether they are conscious of the source of their knowledge or not.
So many sportswriters since that day of infamy in Seoul in 1988 portrayed Charlie as a lone wolf, a pariah in the athletics community, a one-off rogue coach.
Since Johnson was busted, though, far more than 1000 elite sportsmen and women have failed drug tests - none of them associated with Charlie.
Yet he remains the only coach ever to stand up in public and tell it how it was, and probably still is.
Charlie acknowledged his “wrong-headedness” and although banned for life from coaching in Canada, he had spent the rest of his years trying to make amends by helping journalists expose the frauds and helping coaches and athletes - including contemporary Canadian champions - arrive at victory without doping.
A Stanford University graduate in modern history, Charlie had a piercing intellect and a wicked sense of humour.[/i]
Re this site, it will always be ‘Charlie’s site’ but I expect it will continue, obviously without the same special flavour and insight Charlie brought though. If help is needed in anyway just ask.
I just lost family myself to cancer a few months ago, he was only in his early 20s. There are so many variations of it and it seems like there are so many ways to come down with it. Personally, I feel our modern environment has much to do with it. From all the dental x rays all the way to the bad food that is served to us to eat!
This site does have the benefit of 10,000 posts by CF , great archive resource. These posts will be timeless.
Rest in peace Charlie… 
I always wanted to meet you in person, but now that dream is gone. Thank you for your good will to share training wisdom and years of practice.
If I can be of any help please let me know. Sad days for all of us at the forum and the sport world.