There’s been a lot of talk but little action since the Calgary Olympic Development Association announced last week that it would no longer be able to continue funding the sports of ski jumping and Nordic combined, an event that combines jumping and cross-country skiing. After the 2004-05 season, CODA will be pulling its support for the sports and putting that funding into sports where Canada has a better chance of winning medals.
"We met with the Canadian Olympic Association this weekend, and (funding) was a topic there, and of course the funding agents and sports are going to be having meetings in the weeks ahead," said John Mills, president of CODA.
As host nation for the 2010 Winter Games, Canada will be entitled to field qualified athletes in every event, but without more funding Canada may not even be able to do that.
"It’s too early to determine if that’s possible or not, but everyone seems to be willing to talk, so I would take that as a positive step," said Mills.
The central issue is the ski jumping facility built for the 1988 Winter Games in Canada Olympic Park. The facility requires $450,000 a year to run, and makes little in the way of revenues. It does get used by about 80 ski jumpers and Nordic combined hopefuls in high performance and development programs, but with no results to speak of in either discipline in well over a decade, CODA wants to shift funding towards other priorities.
In addition, the facility itself is inadequate and requires significant upgrades to bring it back to international standards. As well as minor repairs such as new plastic for the run in and landing, the landing area needs to be reshaped significantly.
"One of the issues is that with the new ski techniques, the V technique, they’re flying a lot further than they were in 1988 and they’re out-jumping the landing hill," said Mills.
The landing area would have to be extended significantly to ensure that skiers don’t land on the flat area, possibly injuring themselves in the process.
It will cost about $6.5 million in capital upgrades to bring the ski jump up to standard says Mills, money which CODA does not have. That figure doesn’t include any of the wind control measures that Calgary asked for when it launched its bid to host the 2010 Games.
"The tremendous advantage of the site is that it’s close to the city for athletes to access it, but the main disadvantage is that the site gets prevailing winds from the west that blow right across the face of the jump," said Mills.
The facilities planned for the Callaghan Valley as part of the 2010 Winter Games will likely not be up and running until the winter of 2007-08, which means that Canadian Nordic combined and ski jumping athletes may have two seasons without a facility. CODA is setting aside $150,000 for ski jump athletes who are starting once again to compete on the World Cup and have a shot at the Torino Games in 2006, but Mills acknowledges that the athletes may have to train in the U.S. or Europe in the future, without much assistance from CODA.
The days are already numbered for the Calgary facility, said Mills, once the Whistler facility is completed. With a substantial legacy fund in place to ensure that the long-term operational costs for the jumps in the Callaghan Valley are covered, as well as design specifications that are in line with modern international standards, the Calgary facility won’t be able to compete without an upgrade – which is unfortunate because the majority of ski jumping athletes that are starting to post solid results on the World Cup circuit are based in the Calgary area.
There’s no question that Canadian sports funding groups cannot afford to run two facilities, says Mills. "The question is can Canada afford one?" said Mills.
"Sports funding in Canada is a Catch-22, he explains; a sport can’t get funding without results, but can’t get the results without funding. It makes it very difficult for the athletes, and difficult for us when we have to make these hard decisions," said Mills.
Sam Corea, spokesman for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, says 2010 organizers are aware of the issue, but are already working with a tight budget and schedule.
"We’re working hard, and it’s always been part of our planning, to have all facilities open as soon as possible," he said. "The goal has always been to provide some home field advantage to our athletes by getting them in these facilities as soon as possible.
"The ski jumps should be ready for the winter of 2007-08, with the first trial competitions and things the next winter… but there’s no way to advance that further with the construction schedule as tight as it is."
Corea noted that funding for ski jumping and Nordic combined will likely be tight in the future with the Canadian Olympic Committee concentrating more funding on sports and athletes where Canada has the best chance of succeeding.
In their strategic plan, which was endorsed by the board of directors last weekend, the COC set a goal of placing in the top three of all countries in Torino in 2006 with 25 medals, in the top 16 in Beijing in 2008 with 18 medals, and first in 2010 with 35 medals.
Canada’s prospects in both ski jumping and Nordic combined events are low. Canada has not qualified an athlete in ski jumping for the Olympics since the Albertville Games in 1992. The last competitive athlete was Horst Bulau, who netted 13 World Cup wins for Canada in the ’80s, finishing seventh at the Calgary Games.
Canada has never won an Olympic or World Cup medal in Nordic combined, and has failed to qualify athletes for recent Olympics.
The total cost for both sports is between $600,000 and $700,000 annually, including the $450,000 required to keep the ski jumping facility running.
John Reynolds, the Conservative Opposition Critic for Sport, as well as the Member of Parliament for West-Vancouver-Sunshine Coast riding where the Whistler Nordic Centre will be located, voiced his support for the Calgary facility.
"The ski jumping facility at Canada Olympic Park is the only world calibre venue in Canada where Olympic jumpers can go, it attracts training athletes from around the world. This funding cut would be a disastrous move for these two sports," he said. "Until a full program review is done, and a constructive vision is in place, funding needs to remain at current levels. We can’t jeopardize our athletes’ opportunities haphazardly.
"It would be a betrayal of the Olympic spirit that carried Calgary through the most successful Winter Olympics in history if the Liberals don’t step in with a plan to carry our athletes through to 2010."
