Former Skate Canada Chief Sport Officer Patricia Chafe will lead Own the Podium’s winter sport program into 2022.
Chafe has more than two decades of management experience in high performance sport, and brings a track record of success to the position.
“Canada’s winter sport community has established a strong foundation of medal-winning success thanks to the vision and heavy lifting of our sport leaders throughout the country. Our record-setting performance in PyeongChang is proof of that,” said Chafe, who holds four university degrees including a PhD in mathematics.
“The world is not standing still and nor should Canada. We need to build on our past success to help our country achieve even greater goals moving forward.”
Chafe previous worked as a high performance advisor for Canadian women’s soccer, diving and athletics. She was a key player with Skate Canada from 2002-05 and 2013-17, and ran her own high performance sport consulting business, which targeted figure skaters.
Chafe is now responsible for bringing funding recommendations to the OTP senior management team.
“Patricia is a calm, confident leader whose business acumen and skillset bring immense value to our organization,” said Anne Merklinger, chief executive officer, Own the Podium. “Patricia understands the high-performance environment in Canada. She has longstanding relationships with our key sport and government partners and is a proven performer who knows what is required to help Canada’s winter sport organizations win more medals.”
Own the Podium was created by the Canadian government in 2005 to help Canada win more medals at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The organization, which is primarily funded by the Canadian Government, prioritizes and determines investment strategies to national sport organizations.
