Victoria’s athletes, in many disciplines, carved out names for themselves in the bigger arena throughout the 1970’s. For example, Phillip Delesalle, arguably Canada’s greatest male gymnast of all time, trained and competed relentlessly until he achieved five consecutive Canadian men’s championships from 1976 to 1980. Another famous Victoria athlete, Cliff Thorburn dominated the world of snooker and in 1980 he became the first and only overseas player to win the World Professional title that was watched by nearly 20 million TV viewers in Britain.