By Jay Gutteridge
Politicians just don’t seem to care that much about sports.
The federal government recently announced an additional $25 million dedicated to elite amateur athletes over the next five years. This is on top of the $75 million given annually to Sport Canada right now.
After a recent budget that gave billions to higher profile portfolios like health care and community infrastructure, $25 million is chump change. This is especially true considering that Australia, a country substantially smaller than Canada, spent $280 million on amateur sport in 2000.
Fortunately, the Canadian Olympic Committee does have more than $10 million from sponsors to distribute among athletes, but that does little to improve the situation.
The majority of Canada’s amateur athletes are living on very limited funding.
The government provides athletes ranked in the top 16 in the world in individual sports and the top eight or four in the world in team sports with a monthly stipend of $1,100. Athletes who are not as successful receive even less.
Many athletes, like Danielle Goyette of the national women’s hockey team, take on jobs away from sport to help them earn enough money to sustain themselves. They also seek sponsors to aid their quest for the gold, but often have little success in non-Olympic years. All of this detracts from their training and means there is less chance for success.
Those who succeed often do so in spite of government support, not because of it.
The government needs to take action, but in some ways the Liberals’ hands are tied.
If a government was brave enough to increase funding for high-level sport by any substantial margin, the backlash from the voting public would be immense. While Canadians love seeing Canada well represented on the world stage, they aren’t willing to pay to make it happen. Many would rather see funding put into grassroots sports participation.
Both the government and the public quickly forget what success in sport brings to this country. Aside from the obvious international prestige, a gold medal victory provides inspiration to Canadians to become active.
Participation in sport adds to a healthy lifestyle. Many more people would become involved in sport if they saw Canada’s top athletes succeeding.
The budget included $45 million over five years under the health care section to support physical activity in schools and communities. The wording is vague and gives little indication of how this might be achieved.
Thus, it seems likely that the best way to get Canadians active is to give them inspiration.
A perfect example is the national women’s hockey team. Canadian Hockey Association statistics indicate that participation in women’s hockey grew more than 400 per cent between 1990 — when the first Women’s World Ice Hockey Championship was held in Ottawa — and the year 2000. Since then, the team has won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in 2002 and sparked further interest in the game. Well over 50,000 females registered to play hockey in 2001/02, according to the CHA.
Athletes can also inspire in ways beyond encouraging physical activity.
Wrestler Daniel Igali danced triumphantly around the Canadian flag after his Olympic gold-medal victory in 2000 in what was a great moment for Canadian sport.
Igali stayed in Canada after the Commonwealth Games in 1994 because he could not achieve his dreams in his native Nigeria. While still a Canadian resident, he is now trying to use his success to build a school in his childhood village in Nigeria to help others follow in his footsteps. However, he is having difficulty raising sufficient funds from sponsors to achieve this goal. If Igali received more from the government as a top-level athlete he could dedicate more of his sponsorship earnings toward his humanitarian efforts.
Many Canadians pride themselves on their country’s multiculturalism. Surely these people can see the benefits of Igali’s dedication to his cause.
Canada’s elite athletes inspire Canadians to work hard to achieve their dreams. This warrants some real support from the federal government.