The collective Olympic hangover has likely dissipated after Sunday’s 5 a.m. once-in-a-lifetime alcohol-serviced gold medal men’s hockey game. The warm fuzzy good feelings of a great performance by Canadian winter athletes still in our bellies keeping us cozy through the week.
But while the numbers look good in the bigger picture, they may not translate to good news for local sports organizations like Cross Country Canada and Biathlon Canada. Both national teams train out of the Canmore Nordic Centre and are a big part of the reason 19 Bow Valley athletes went to Russia to compete.
The reason for concern is because when we pave the road to the Olympics in the way Canada’s Own the Podium program does, as a nation we punish future athletes for the fact their sports didn’t bring home the bling. While there were some personal best results and a lot to be proud of from our biathletes and cross-country skiers, the fact is they did not hit the podium.
Get the medals or no money for you. It is a crass way to describe the manner in which OTP inspires amateur sport organizations to perform during Olympic events, but it doesn’t make it any less true. While Canada has seen positive results in Vancouver and now Sochi – it is a myopic and arguably Machiavellian way to inspire greatness in sports.
The Canadian Olympic Committee committed $37 million over the next four years for Own the Podium and current executive director Anne Merklinger wouldn’t comment at the time of the funding announcement how the money will be distributed between summer and winter Olympic sports. Instead, Merklinger said the chief focus was Sochi.
Translation: Own the Podium is waiting to see what sports win medals to help determine the funding model over the next four years.
This business-focused, return on investment mentality that OTP uses to dish out funding for our future Olympians creates a situation where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The priorities are out of line; success is defined as one thing only and it punishes sports groups and their athletes for not reaching a first, second or third finish.
Our biathlon team set seven Canadian Olympic records in 11 races – that is success. Cross-country skiers were fast, ready and hungry, but were dogged by illness, wax issues and, to be quite frank, circumstances didn’t align for them to reach their two-medal goal.
It would be shortsighted to translate that into decreased funding for the sport program. Do we invest less in schools that have lower average grades? Do we withdraw funding for patients in hospitals who get sicker? No – the paradigm OTP uses to fund sport has no place in the pursuit of excellence at the Olympics.
Norway is a great example of what can be done when we inspire future generations to participate in sports and athletics and find and nurture those that will be our Olympians. That country bases funding on participation levels – a fundamentally different approach than what Own the Podium uses. Norway finished second in total medal count at 26 – one more than Canada’s 25. That 25 count for this country this year and our performance in Vancouver may lead some to believe OTP works, it is a short-term result that bankrupts our future and is entirely unsustainable.
When we cheer Go Canada Go it should be followed by putting our money where our mouth is with adequate annual funding to support developing sport programs and Olympic medals will be an outcome, not an arbitrary goal set by those who hold the purse strings.
