He was the first, and only, cyclist in history to simultaneously hold world records in all three of track cycling's sprint races: the 200m, 500m and 1000m distances, all in a 24-hour span from October 9–10 in 1980.
In his middle-age, he continued to cycle and took part in Master Series races, getting a bronze medal at the Canadian Nationals for his age group in 2014.
[3] At age 13, Gordon first came to public attention, in April 1970, when he was featured in an article about newspaper carriers for the local news outlet, The Niagara Falls Review.
[5] Singleton’s training method at the time was unusual, as he mentioned in a 1974 interview, that he just cycled to get to places because it was cheaper than driving a car.
On July 19, Singleton won the 1975 Canadian men's sprint championship at Calgary's Glenmore Velodrome when he beat Montreal's Andre Simard 2–0 in the best of three event.
Although he did not finish in a medal position, Singleton, along with future Hall of Fame cyclist Jocelyn Lovell, led a Canadian surge onto the cycling stage in the 1970s and 1980s.
[14] The following month, he and team Ontario won more medals at the 1976 Canadian Track Cycling Championships held at Montreal's Olympic Velodrome.
In the tie-breaker forth race, Lovell won, but the young challenger Singleton proved much with his silver medal finish.
[16] The Ontario pursuit team, anchored by both Lovell and Singleton, took the gold medal for the second year in a row.
[16] He would continue to rise in the international rankings, and would again represent Canada in 1978, this time at the Commonwealth Games held in Edmonton.
[20] San Juan, Puerto Rico was the main host city for the 1979 Pan American Games, but the track cycling events took place about 100 kilometres south, at a velodrome in Coamo.
The lack of artificial lighting forced all races to be held in the middle of the day, in the full heat and humidity of the Caribbean summer weather.
[22] Donald Sutherland, the technical director for the Canadian Cycling Association, thought the track was poorly designed.
The mayor of Niagara Falls, Wayne Thomson presented him with a medallion and a visibly exhausted Singleton was both surprised and grateful for the reception.
Other team members included Hugh Walton from Toronto; Steve Bauer from Fenwick; and Barry Trevisiol from Sudbury.
Singleton had a strong race and finished second to defending world champion, Lothar Thoms of East Germany.
[39] Jock Wadley, writing in The Daily Telegraph, stated the race conditions were curious in that for Singleton's first heat, the start gun was fired four times.
[4] In 1980, at the height of his career, Singleton was the second-ranked sprint cyclist in the world, and one of the favourites for the gold medals at that year's summer Olympics.
[8] In lieu of the Olympics, the Canadian Government set up an opportunity with additional funding for 20 of its top summer athletes to compete in an alternative competition.
After discussions with his coach, Eddie Soens of Liverpool, it was decided to attack all three world records at the sprint distances.
[45] He was the first, and remains the only, cyclist in history to simultaneously hold records in these three distances,[46][47] For the second year in a row, he was nominated for the Lou Marsh Award as Canada's best athlete.
[49] Next, Singleton would take the silver medal in the 200 metres, behind five-time world champion Koichi Nakano of Japan.
[50] The 1982 UCI World Track Championships were held at the Saffron Lane velodrome in Leicester, United Kingdom in late August.
On August 27, in the Keirin event, he defeated Australian Danny Clark – the two-time champion – to win the gold medal.
[47] In his final race, on August 28, he faced off against Japanese racer Koichi Nakano for the last time in the match sprint event.
He was triumphant in his return to the World Masters event in 1998, where he was a double Gold Medal winner, in the sprint and 750 metre time trial (40–45 year category).
Later, in 2014, at the Canadian Track Championships he won a bronze medal in the Masters "C" Category sprint title.
[58] His American practice venue made him a 1996 inductee into their Valley Preferred Cycling Center Hall of Fame, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
He was inducted into the Hall on October 10, 2015, with the ceremony held at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario.
[61] Singleton married Louann Godak in 1981, and the couple had two sons: Chris and Jamie, who both went on to win national championships in their respective sports soccer and football: Chris — CISSA National Championship soccer, Ridley College 2003;[62] and Jamie, McMaster University won the Vanier Cup in Vancouver 2011.