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Read sets new direction for Alpine Canada Alpin

Podium 2010 is intended to make Canada a world power in skiing To understand that things are changing at Alpine Canada Alpin you only have to read to the second paragraph of Chairman Renaud Beauchesne’s report on the 2002 season.

Podium 2010 is intended to make Canada a world power in skiing

To understand that things are changing at Alpine Canada Alpin you only have to read to the second paragraph of Chairman Renaud Beauchesne’s report on the 2002 season.

"We did not meet our objectives for the year in overall World Cup and Olympic standings. This situation is not acceptable and a new plan is being put in place with the help of our coaches and the athletic vice president to make sure that we can deliver podiums in the future, with a definite target for 2010."

That plan, Podium 2010, was outlined at a town hall meeting in Whistler last weekend by new ACA President Ken Read.

"Let’s be absolutely clear – we are in the business of producing champions," Read states in the ACA annual report.

But it’s been more than eight years since a Canadian male has stood atop a World Cup podium – Cary Mullen at Aspen in March of 1994. Melanie Turgeon was the last Canadian female to win on the World Cup, in February of 2000.

That reality, combined with the disappointing results at the Salt Lake City Olympics last February, led to a wholesale re-assessment of ACA. Kerry Moynihan was "relieved of his duties" as ACA president on March 5. Later that month the board of directors announced The Course Ahead, five principles for the next quadrennial plan based on input from parents, coaches, athletes, sponsors, stakeholders and others.

In May, Read was hired as president. Since then the Podium 2010 Strategic Plan for Excellence has taken shape. The plan touches on virtually all aspects of ACA’s operations with the goal of making Canada a top ski nation again over the next eight years.

"We are performance centred and athlete focused," Read said Saturday. "We want to win World Cup medals by 2006 and to dominate by 2010."

Podium 2010 identifies five general categories to broaden the national team:

• Talent identification & athlete development and retention;

• World class coaching;

• Leading edge training and development technology;

• Access to the best training facilities;

• Aligning, co-ordinating and unifying Canada’s elite athlete development system.

Specific steps include melding provincial ski teams with the national junior team to create a national development group. Nationally co-ordinated development camps will be part of this program.

An athlete-focused education program is also part of the plan. Read noted that the average age of the male medal winners at Salt Lake City was 30.

"If we’re asking a 15-year-old to make a 15-year commitment (to the ski team), ACA has to support education to get that commitment – so the choice is not education or ski racing," Read said.

The Calgary Olympic Development Association currently offers a high school program for elite athletes but Read is hoping to make post-secondary education programs available to "time-starved athletes."

Nancy Greene Raine suggested the program should include provisions to welcome back a skier who decides to take four years off from racing to obtain a university education.

On the technology side, Read said ACA’s partnership with General Motors is now allowing skiers to do wind tunnel testing at the auto-maker’s facilities in Detroit. Partnerships with engineering firms and/or universities are also planned to develop training simulators.

One of ACA’s larger goals is to develop a summer training facility at a glacier in B.C., to cut down on the expense of travel to Southern Hemisphere resorts for off-season training. CODA is expected to partner in the development. An announcement may be made this week.

Another aspect of Podium 2010 includes "hot housing" athletes to develop a few promising athletes as quickly as possible. Read implied that the men’s World Cup speed team, which was effectively disbanded after the Salt Lake Games, may have to be rebuilt through hot housing.

Many of the Podium 2010 plans will be structured in the months ahead and implemented next spring.

To pay for the programs ACA is looking for $5,000 annual commitments from individuals and corporations for four years. Seventy-five per cent of the funds will go to athlete development programming and 25 per cent will be invested in an ACA education foundation.

Combined with long-term sponsorships, the ACA is looking at ending the boom and bust cycle of funding that has plagued the organization in the past.

ACA’s 2002 annual report states: "The recent disappointing results from the 2002 Winter Olympics have their origins in policy decisions forced on sport over a decade ago by contraction of government support and loss of short term corporate sponsorships."

Read also spoke about broadening the perspective of people involved in ski racing.

"We can’t just look at ski racing, we have to look at the ski industry as a whole. We have to help each other," Read said.

He noted that skiing is a family activity and that each ski racer usually comes from a skiing family. Those families are frequent skiers, people that ski areas depend on.

Read said success at the highest level will drive enthusiasm for ski racing. That means sustained wins, not occasional World Cup victories, he added.

ACA is also planning to strategically develop athletes’ profiles. He pointed to Bode Miller of the U.S. as a personality who has re-kindled public interest in ski racing.