Status quo or share the wealth? Funding program at crossroads
As it prepares for a report that will have a profound impact on sports in this country, Own The Podium can be confident of one thing: It has fulfilled its mandate.
Founded in 2005 with the express purpose of increasing Canada’s medal count at the Winter Olympics, the not-forprofit entity helped the nation’s athletes record 24 medals in Turin, 26 in Vancouver and 25 in Sochi. In the four Winter Games before that, Canada averaged 13 medals per Olympics.
As for the Summer Games, Rio in 2016 represented the first summer Olympiad under the OTP umbrella and Canada responded with 22 medals, tying a record for non-boycotted Games. In 2008 and 2012, the program went under the name Road to Excellence and Canada produced 19 and 18 medals respectively after winning 12 in Athens in 2004 and 14 in Sydney in 2000.
So you can question OTP’s methods, as many have. You can question its decisions. You can even question its motivation. But you can’t question OTP’s effect on Canada’s performance at the Olympics. Prior to its creation, our country, with a few notable exceptions, was an afterthought in world sports. Now, it’s a power at the Winter Games and is coming off a 10thplace finish in total medals at a Summer Games.
And this might be the end of an era for OTP.
Two of the scariest words in the English language are “government review” and with the 2018 Winter Games now less than a year away, OTP is awaiting a review by the Trudeau government. Expected some time in April, the report will take a close look at OTP’s practices, but focus primarily on “targeted excellence,” which is the organization’s core strategy.
Loosely stated, targeted excellence directs funding toward the sports and athletes with the best chance of delivering medals. That strategy has proven successful over the last dozen years. But there are new bosses in charge of the purse strings now and they might not share their predecessors’ enthusiasm for podium finishes.
“Will that change dramatically?” OTP CEO Anne Merklinger said in a phone interview. “I can’t predict that. All I can say is winning medals is important to Canada.”
The next question is how important and that’s where things get interesting.
Over the last three Winter Olympic quadrennials, OTP has been responsible for doling out almost $210 million in funding: $71 million for Vancouver in 2010, almost $82 million for Sochi in 2014 and $56 million to date for PyeongChang with one more year to come. Those numbers represent the bulk of the funding available to individual sports federations and their athletes, which in turn makes it crucial to their operation and their success.
But it’s also created a hierarchy of haves and have-nots within the sporting community and the have-nots — “non-targeted sports” is the applied euphemism — are clamouring for a bigger piece of the pie. In this country, that pie is only so big, which means hard choices have to be made.
It might over-simplify things to say this comes down to a question of medal pursuit against sharing the wealth, but that concern is certainly there among the elite programs. Merklinger was asked if she shared that concern.
“We don’t know yet,” she said. “There’s been some indication the philosophy to target excellence will remain. That’s positive.
“I believe this minister (Carla Qualtrough, the minister of sport and a former Paralympian) continues to reinforce that Canada does well.”
Uh, did we mention there’s a huge political component to this debate?
Merklinger went on to say that OTP’s goal is to increase the medal count in South Korea over Sochi and Vancouver. Again, that seems directly related to the level of funding available for sports, but there’s another way to look at this performance-versusparticipation issue.
In Canada, there are few things celebrated as intensely as an Olympic medal. Don’t know why and don’t know how, but they transcend regional and cultural biases and seem to touch every Canadian. Youths are inspired to take up sport. Adults are inspired to become involved. Corporations — hello, corporations — are inspired to help out. At least they should be.
Understandably, the Olympic movement has its own sins to answer for, but to Canadians, the Games produce heroes and we need heroes. Think of the impact the 2010 Olympics made on Vancouver. Think of the moments, big and small, that have stayed with us. I know it was just a 17-day sports festival, but it meant something here and the Games continue to mean something.
Do you get that same meaning without the medals? That’s a big question, but there is a difference. We’ve seen it, felt it over the years and we’ve grown to like that feeling.
Don’t ask us to go back.