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IOC takes an interest in Canadian sports

New funding may be available to athletes

Everyone from Prime Minister Paul Martin to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge is wading into the debate over funding for Canada’s Olympic athletes, following one of Canada’s lowest medal tallies in recent years.

In Athens, Canadian athletes brought home an even dozen medals, adding a couple of medals in the closing days of the Games. When all was said and done Canada was ranked 19th with three gold medals, six silvers and three bronze medals – two fewer medals than we earned in 2000. In overall rankings, we’ve slipped from 11 th in 1996 to 18 th in 2000, before dropping three more positions at Athens.

In some cases, funding wasn’t the problem. Of the 34 Canadian athletes or crews ranked in the top-five in the world going into the Olympics, only nine won medals at the Games.

In addition, according the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), Canadian athletes achieved their highest success rate ever with 79 per cent of athletes placing in the top 12 in their respective events. Some 58 per cent of athletes were in the top-eight.

Still, medals are what matters.

On Sunday, the day of the closing ceremonies, the COC released a list of suggestions to turn those top-12 finishes into podiums. Among their recommendations was a call to increase Athlete Assistance Program funding for carded athletes to a minimum of $20,000 a year from the $13,300 (approximately $1,100 a month). They also recommended hiring international sport experts to provide guidance and make recommendations, increasing the number of athletes in sports where Canada has the greatest probability of success, creating an independent agency to administer sport in Canada, establishing national sport training institutes with sport science and medical expertise, and providing national team coaches with appropriate salaries and incentives for performance.

At a news conference, COC executive director Mark Lowry said it wasn’t realistic for Canada to field Olympians in all 28 Summer Olympic disciplines, and that Winter Olympic disciplines were deserving of new funding as well, despite a higher success rate. He said that the COC had to prioritize where to put their funding in the future, and that some of that would have to go into coaching.

"We have a coaching situation that is deplorable, unacceptable," he said at a post-Olympic press conference. "This relates directly to athlete performance."

On Monday, the day after the closing ceremonies, Jacques Rogge said that he would visit Canada to talk to the Vancouver 2010 organizing committee and the federal government about amateur sports funding.

"It’s very high on my agenda," he said, "Government funding will be needed."

Rogge said he was invited to come by Canadian members of the IOC, as well as members of the Vancouver 2010 organizing committee.

It’s not unusual for the IOC president to visit countries to encourage more backing for athletes. In the past Rogge has made the same pitch in Greece and Italy, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2006.

"I don’t think I will have to do that in Beijing," he said, alluding to the Chinese team’s tally of 63 medals.

Not to be caught sleeping when Rogge arrives, Prime Minister Paul Martin asked Canada’s sports minister, Stephen Owen, to find ways to improve the chances of our amateur athletes.

Owen didn’t rule out funding, but was reported by the media as suggesting that any new money would likely better be spent on participation and playground-level development than high performance athletes. Owen said he was misquoted and that any new funding plan will likely benefit every level of sport development.

This year the federal government raised their sport budget from $90 million to $120 million, and it’s likely that the extra $30 million a year will be made permanent.

"I’ll be making announcements within the next couple of weeks on how that is going to be allocated across high-performance sports support, including increasing the number of high-performance athletes who get the support, and increasing the amount of the support," Owen told CTV.

Sport Matters, an advocacy group for Canada’s national sports organizations, is hoping to increase funding for high-performance to $180 million a year and funding for participation to $100 million a year – representing approximately one per cent of our national health care budget. They won’t get all of it, but if the prime minister and Owen have both committed to improving amateur sports, they will likely see a boost in the next federal budget.

Five more medals in final week

After press time last week, Canada earned five more medals in Athens, including a gold medal, several silver medals and a bronze.

In mountain biking, a sport that Canada has traditionally excelled in, Marie-Helene Premont of Chateau Richer, Quebec came up big with a silver medal performance.

Alison Sydor of North Vancouver also looked like she was in contention for a bronze, but was overtaken near the end of the race to finish in fourth.

Gunn-Rita Dahle of Norway, the most dominant rider in the history of the sport, took the gold medal, while Sabine Spitz of Germany finished third, behind Premont.

In the men’s race, Julien Absalon of France took the gold medal, followed by Jose Antonio Hermida of Spain and Bart Bretnjens of The Netherlands. Seamus McGrath was the top Canadian in ninth place, while Ryder Hesjedal, a favourite to win a medal, was forced to pull out after a bad start on the uphill climb and a blown rear tire that left him in last place.

If Canada had a hero for the Games, it was definitely Adam van Koeverden of Oakville, Ontario. Van Koeverden won two medals: a gold in the men’s Canoe-Kayak K1 500 metre and a bronze in the men’s Canoe/Kayak Flatwater K1 1,000 metre. Both medals, coming in the last week of the Games, boosted Canada’s overall results.

Veteran Caroline Brunet also put in a strong performance in the women’s K1 500 metre to finish third.

Vancouver’s Ross Macdonald and Michael Wolfs of Toronto also won silver medals in sailing, which is typically not one of Canada’s top events.

Medal Count:

Gold

Adam van Koeverden, Men’s K1 500-metre Kayak

Lori-Ann Muenzer, Cycling Track – Women’s Sprint

Kyle Shewfelt – Artistic Gymnastics, Men’s Floor

Silver

Marie-Helene Premont – Women’s Cross-country

Alexandre Despatie – Men’s 3-metre Springboard Diving

Karen Cockburn – Women’s Trampoline

Rowing – Men’s Four Team

Sailing – Star

Tonya Verbeek – Women’s Freestyle Wrestling, 55kg

Bronze

Adam van Koeverden, Men’s K1 1,000-metre Kayak

Caroline Brunet, Women’s K1 500-metre Kayak

Women’s Synchronized 100-metre Diving