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Nick Akers, who is a British, New Zealand and Canadian citizen, trained and ran in cross-country races with Steve Ovett in Brighton in the early 1970's. Nick later moved to New Zealand and in 1974 won the NZ Junior Men’s 1500 metre provincial championship in Invercargill. In 1978 Nick ran for the Cayman Islands in the 1978 Commonwealth Games and set national records over the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 metre distances. These records still stand today. Ian Wooldridge, a sports writer with the Daily Mail walked in the opening ceremonies as a member of the Cayman Islands team, which almost led to their expulsion.
In 1980 Nick Akers legally changed his name to Nick Vladivar for sponsorship so he could compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Vladivar is a British brand name of vodka that built its advertising campaigns on the Cold War unrest in the mid1980s.
Smirnoff and Nike refused to sponsor Nick. In any event after enduring a spontaneous collapsed right lung in March 1980, the International Olympic Committee challenge of Nick's amateur status and the US Olympic boycott left him sidelined and unable to compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Nick went on to compete in the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games in the 10,000 metres and the marathon.
In 1988 Nick finished 261st in the New York City Marathon.
In 1989, 1990 and in 1991 Nick broke the Guinness World Record for snowshoeing 1 mile in a time of 5 minutes 56 seconds, taking 2 minutes off the old record in -28 degree centigrade weather. His new record was published for ten years without being broken.
The Sounds of Silence Musical. On September 16, 2007 Nick met with Art Garfunkel and shared with him a musical concept inspired by the songs of Simon and Garfunkel based on the fictional characters of Richard Cory and his family. This fulfilled a childhood ambition of meeting Art Garfunkel in person and sharing this musical concept with him and Paul Simon.
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Photo of Art Garfunkel - Courtesy of the Pembina Institute
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Nick's brother Chris Akers followed the family tradition of leaving a mark in the sports world, garnering his own degree of successes with his sports exploits.
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