The national Own the Podium 2010 program has been officially expanded to include national summer sports as well, making the organization more or less permanent for high performance sports in Canada.
"We believe it is best to bring together Canada's winter and summer high performance programs under one name that represents all of our objectives - to own the podium," said Own The Podium CEO Roger Jackson. "Merging the two winter and summer sport initiatives under one name - Own The Podium - will simplify our operations and reinforce our commitment to provide all of Canada's medal-potential winter and summer sport athletes with access to the critical resources they require to be fully prepared to win."
Own the Podium 2010 was established in 2003 to shore up resources for athletes and sports with medal potential, and to develop and share leading edge sports sciences. The original endowment was $110 million with approximately half that money coming from Olympic sponsors and the remainder coming from federal and provincial governments.
The money has been allotted to sports based on their potential to win medals, going towards camps, coaches and the athletes themselves, although a large portion has been diverted into the Top Secret program to develop leading edge technologies and sports sciences, such as new techniques and materials for waxing ski bases and the new Whistler Bomber four-man bobsleigh. The program also hires various strength trainers, nutritionists, psychologists and other experts to work with high performance athletes.
Own The Podium has not finalized how it would fund support for summer and winter sports athletes or how the money will be divided between sports, athletes and sports sciences.
To date the Own The Podium program has been regarded as a success. This past season Canada's athletes made national history at World Championship events, which always take place a year before the Olympic Games.
While most athletes would prefer to be judged by their overall results, there's something to be said for performing on demand. The Olympics are the best example of this, coming once every four years and maybe twice or three times during an athlete's competitive career.
One rung down the ladder are World Championships, which take place every two years. One year out from the Games, they are considered one of the best measures as to how Canada currently stands, and what our chances are of placing first among nations in total medals in 2010.
In that respect, 2009 was Canada's best ever World Championship year, with 29 medals - six gold, ten silver and 13 bronze - won by Canadian athletes. That put Canada first among nations, with the usually dominant Germany and the U.S. tying with 28 medals each.
Canadian paralympians also topped the World Cup medal count this year with 29 gold medals - most of them in para-alpine skiing, but with some additional medals from cross-country and sledge hockey. In second place was Russia with 25 gold medals. Germany was third with 14. In overall rankings, Canada's Paralympic hopefuls were second only to Russia.
"This truly is a breakthrough season for Canada's high performance athletes, and the first time that Canada has ever finished ahead of the Germans in overall medals won at World Championship events," said Jackson.
Canada's long track speed skaters led the way this year with eight World Championship medals. The freestyle ski team and short track speed skate team each added four medals, the snowboard team added three medals, the alpine ski team and ski cross teams added two medals, and the men's curling team and women's hockey team each added a medal to the total.
But while Canada is on track to place first among nations in the 2010 Olympics and top three in the 2010 Paralympics, Jackson cautioned that there is still work to do.
"This year we underperformed in some disciplines, and we have loads of work to do if we want to reach our ultimate goal of finishing number one in 2010," he said.
For example, Canada dropped from second to fourth in the World Cup medal count with 157 medals this year. Germany, Austria and the U.S. won 207, 161 and 159 medals respectively.
And while Jackson didn't name names, there were some obvious reasons for the lower medal count this year. The women's alpine ski team, which added nine medals in 2007-08, was completely shut out this year. And while athletes stepped up, injuries also took their toll. For example, Olympic cross country medalist Chandra Crawford missed the entire season with a leg injury, while the speed skating teams were without Cindy Klassen, Jeremy Witherspoon and Mike Ireland.
A run of medals in freestyle, including ski cross, helped a lot, as did the surprise performance of Canada's men's cross-country ski team.
"If we want to achieve the top," said Jackson, "we need to continue to deliver the necessary funding and leadership required for Canadian athletes to have the opportunity to access all of the resources needed to be fully prepared to win."
The next 10 months are critical and Own The Podium plans to direct support to athletes who are targeted to win medals in 2010, who will be asked to commit, said Jackson, to "rigorous training, and to focus on podiums in their training and competition in the coming months as they prepare for the 2010 Games."
The athletes will also be testing new equipment and technology provided through the Top Secret program. Advances range from the Whistler Bomber bobsleigh that was engineered by Bombardier and put to the test at the Whistler Sliding Centre during February's World Cup, to new techniques for waxing and tuning skis and boards.
As well, athletes will be given a chance to train at Olympic venues in Whistler and Vancouver where possible, and additional camps will be held, like the joint ski cross and snowboard cross camps currently taking place on Blackcomb.
Own The Podium is also continuing to get the public involved, asking Canadians to donate $20.10 each to raise $5 million for the athletes and the Own The Podium program. Donations can be made at www.olympicfoundation.ca.
Sea to Sky athletes played their part in this year's success.
In ski cross, Ashleigh McIvor, Aleisha Cline, Julia Murray, and Davey Barr all earned podiums this year. In snowboarding, Maëlle Ricker made another solid contribution to place second overall in snowboardcross, while halfpipe athletes Crispin Lipscomb, Justin Lamoureux, Brad Martin and Jeff Batchelor had World Cup podiums this season. In freestyle, Kristi Richards of Pemberton won a medal with the moguls team. In alpine skiing, Michael Janyk placed third in slalom at the World Championships, the first Canadian male ever to win a medal at the championships in a technical event.
