Professional Bobsledder, Olympic Gold Medalist. He was an award-winning professional bobsledder and all-around athlete. He was educated locally and attended the McKeough Public School and Chatham Collegiate Institute, both in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. While growing up he became interested in sports and he made this a big part of his life. He later attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, where he was a member of the wrestling team. He also completed his Master's Degree at the State University of New York. Following his graduation from university, he taught high school and coached in and around the Province of Ontario including at his old school Chatham Collegiate Institute from 1958 to 1959. He also taught in London, England, and on his days off he would take vacations to places like Austria where he worked on his skiing and mountain climbing abilities. He later taught school in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and skiing in the State of Michigan. During the early 1960s, he returned to Europe and met up with two university friends named John Emery and Vic Emery who were bobsledding in Germany. He returned to Canada shortly thereafter and began teaching at the Mount Royal High School in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and where he also coached wrestling, football, and taught skiing, among other sports, beginning in 1962. He then decided to join up with John Emery, Vic Emery, and Peter Kirby, and try to win a spot at the 1964 Winter Olympics which were to be held in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9 of that year. The four men trained rigorously and competed in bobsled and luge events in both Austria and Lake Placid, New York, in the winters of 1962 and 1963. He then joined John Emery, Vic Emery, and Peter Kirby, for training in the Four-Man Bobsled tryouts in Cortina, Italy, and then to Innsbruck, Austria, for luge training between 1963 and 1964. He of course with the other three men was chosen to be teammates of the Canadian Bobsled Team (or Canada-1) and they went onto represent their native Canada by winning the Olympic Gold Medal in Run 1, Run 2, Run 3, and Run 4, in the Men's-Four Bobsled Event. He also competed in luge in 1964, but dropped out after 2 runs, having sustained some minor injuries and being unable to reconcile his bobsled and luge schedules. Following his triumphant win at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, he continued to represent his native country of Canada in the sport of bobsledding internationally until 1967, at which time he became one of the biggest promoters of luge in Canada most notably as a mentor to a group of Canadian athletes training for the future Olympics in Munich, Germany, in 1970, and the coach of the Canadian luge team at the 1972 Winter Olympic Games which were held in Sapporo, Japan. He also returned to teaching and taught at John Abbott College in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, before retiring after nineteen years in 1990. He had taught school and sports for a total of thirty-five years. After his retirement from teaching, he moved to Windermere, British Columbia, where he continued to enjoy skiing, hiking, and golfing. He was a longtime member of the Laurentian Bobsleigh Association and was also the owner of Doug Anakin Sports in Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada, a store that specialized in outdoor sports equipment for forty-six years until his retirement from there in 2009. As an all-around athlete, and at only five foot seven inches tall and weighing 150 pounds, he was fondly nicknamed "Mickey Mouse" and the "Olympic Dorf Dwarf." For his contribution to sports, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1964, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1971, and the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. The John Abbott College in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he taught for nineteen years also established the "Doug Anakin Scholarship for Outdoor Pursuits" which is presented annually to a student who best demonstrates Anakin's traits. He passed away in Invermere, British Columbia, Canada, on April 25, 2020, at the age of 89, and he was cremated and his life was later celebrated.