Steve Giles is a world champion and has the gold medal from the 1998 Senior World Championships to prove it. During the 16 years he spent with Canada’s canoe/kayak team, he competed in the Senior World Championships seven times, also winning two bronze one in 1993 and one in 2002. These victories were all in single competitor events, as was Steve’s gold-medal win at the 1999 Pan American Games.

Giles was adept at both the 500 m event and 1000 m early in his career. His best races came in the C-1 1000 m event later in his career, earning the world championship gold medal in 1998 at Szeged, Hungary. In the same event, he won a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and a bronze medal at the 2002 World Championships in Seville, Spain. He also won a bronze medal at the 1993 world championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the men’s C-1 500 m event, and at the 1989 Junior World Championships in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Giles has represented Canada in not one, but four Olympic Games 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 placing in the top eight each time. At the 2000 Games in Sydney, he claimed a bronze in the single canoe 1000-metre event.

In the 2004 Summer Olympics, Giles competed in the C-1 1000 m event. He finished second in his initial heat, advancing to the semifinal with a time of 3:52.451. Giles won his semifinal with a time of 3:51.720, qualifying for the final. There, he placed fifth at 3:51.457.

Steve Giles retired after the 2004 Athens Olympics and became a full-time electrical engineer.

For the 2009 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Dartmouth, Giles served as Chair of Competition.