ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Training elite athletes is expensive, of course. But are the costs higher in Canada? Absolutely, say Canadian sport leaders.
“What is worth highlighting in terms of funding for elite amateur sport, in order to judge whether it is sufficient or not, is to look at where the spending is going. The reality in Canada is that we are a very big country with not that many people in it, ”illustrates Stéphane Barrette, CEO of Nordiq Canada.
“If you want to develop, when you’re a top athlete, you can’t stay in your yard. To participate in national-level competitions, you may have to fly four to five hours. In Europe, you can go to World Cups (international level) three hours away from your home. It puts enormous pressure on elite sport in Canada. »
“We don’t have that big of a population and it’s located in one of the largest territories in the world,” adds Eric Myles, head of sport at the Canadian Olympic Committee. This ratio has a great impact on training, preparation and the ability to participate in competitions of sufficient level. Our athletes therefore often find themselves outdoors.
“I often collaborate with the Netherlands, a country that is cited because of its success. For their part, if they decide to hold a meeting with all the athletes, all the federations, the furthest are an hour and a half away. If we have such a meeting in Canada, we left for a week with people from Vancouver to Newfoundland. It changes the game on a lot of factors: training, competitions. This leads to discussions on centralization. The beauty of our country is our territory, but that brings its share of challenges in elite sport. »
It is also difficult to focus on North American territory: for most amateur winter sports, it is in Europe that it happens.
“We are still isolated. (…) We spend a lot of money just to compete at the national level, then we spend a lot of it to compete in Europe, continues Barrette. We don’t have enough depth at the regional level in Canada. If I take cross-country skiing, in Norway you have a national competition that is almost Olympic level. It makes a gigantic difference. »
Despite this, Canada managed to hound the European superpowers. Like when the Canadian team sprint, with only two 23-year-old cross-country skiers, finished fifth less than 23 seconds behind Norway, Finland, Russia and Sweden. Or that the men’s biathlon relay achieved the best performance in the country’s history with a sixth place, behind Norway, France, Russia, Germany and Sweden.
“We’re doing well with the abilities we have, the realities of our country and the choices we make,” adds Myles. Sometimes we compare ourselves to countries that invest more in winter sports than summer sports. We invest equally on both fronts. It’s a conscious choice. We could decide to target only winter sports and “go win the Winter Games”. That’s not Canada. When you look at the results of medals or performances between the countries that are targeting the two seasons, we are not far from the five best in the world. We’re not there yet, but we’re very close. You start fighting against big nations, like Germany or the United States. Under the circumstances, I think we’re doing well.
“You go to each of these countries and there is no perfect system. There is good work being done in Canada, with proud and serious leaders. I am extremely proud of the progress of the collaboration, especially since 2016, between us, the podium, Sport Canada and the provinces. There is still a lot to do, but it is not something that is stagnating or receding. »
