William Douglas Gairdner[1] (October 19, 1940 – January 12, 2024) was a Canadian track and field athlete in the men's 400 m hurdles and the men's decathlon at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

He was awarded a silver medal in decathlon event at the 1963 Pan American Games in Brazil.

Gairdner attended Appleby College in Oakville, and was a resident of Toronto.

Following his hurdling career, he applied himself to the field of academia.

in 1967 (studying Structural Linguistics at Stanford University) and then earned a second one at the institution in 1969 in English Literature and Creative Writing.