Philip Einar Olsen (31 January 1957 – 15 March 2020) was a Canadian athlete,[1] a javelin thrower who competed in the finals in the 1976 Summer Olympics[2] and won a gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games.

His meteoric rise started in 1973 with a gold medal performance at the Canada Summer Games in Burnaby, British Columbia.

In 1974 as a grade 11 student, Olsen won the BC high school javelin gold medal with a record throw that still stands today.

Upon graduation from Nanaimo District Secondary School, Olsen was recruited by the University of Tennessee — one of the elite track and field programs in the United States.

As the number three-ranked javelin thrower in the world at that time, Olsen had a legitimate chance of winning an Olympic medal.