For two weeks every two years, Canada’s elite athletes are elevated to the status of national heroes.
The Olympic Games, whether summer or winter, have a way of capturing the imagination of Canadians from coast to coast, pulling the media spotlight away from the millionaires in pro sports (well, for the most part), and focusing it on our amateur athletes, most of whom get little to no media coverage during the year.
But for the athletes who aspire to be Olympians, the journey to the games is much longer than two weeks. It takes years of training and competing at the highest level of sport and for most amateur athletes it also takes a massive financial commitment.
Those who do make it to the Olympics enjoy a brief two-week period of celebrity, until amateur athletes are dropped from the public consciousness at the conclusion of the games.
The Heritage Committee recently recognized the need for more private contributions to our athletes in a report to the House of Commons.
Though the Canadian government has significantly increased its contributions to elite sport over the last decade, the report argues there is a need for more corporate sponsorship of top level athletes.
The numbers back up the suggestion: currently, the top athletes in Canada receive $1,500 a month from the Canadian government; hardly enough money to live on, let alone pay for travel, training and equipment.
At $18,000 annually, the funding places our best athletes well below the poverty line. And that’s only athletes at the highest level – those still climbing the ladder in the competitive world receive less than half that amount.
If an athlete is seriously injured or drops in performance, he or she risks losing that funding. At an international competition, next month’s rent should be the last thing on an athlete’s mind, yet that is the reality for a number of Canada’s brightest.
The problem is, the money can’t all come from the government.
Over the past four years, the Canadian government has invested more than $153 million into high-level sports. If Canadians are going to continue to demand success at the games, more pressure needs to be applied to corporations and citizens to sponsor our athletes.
Supporting businesses that sponsor future Olympians is a good start, but it’s also never been easier for Canadians to directly contribute to an athlete’s success.
Makeachamp.com, a crowd-funding website for athletes based in Montreal, is one of the ways Canadians can support their local sports heroes. Olympic hopefuls from across Canada have profiles on the site, where users can directly contribute to the athletes.
Brianne Tutt, who competed in speed skating at Sochi, was one of many Canadian Olympians who had a Make a Champ profile. She raised $2,000 initially, but donations have been steady since her Sochi debut.
Another benefit of private donations is that is an opt-in format of funding. Those who dislike seeing their tax dollars put towards athletics are not obligated to donate.
On the other hand, this puts the onus on those who truly appreciate the Games to make donations.
Over the last two weeks, the nation celebrated its athletes as heroes and the performance of the Canadian Olympic Team has no doubt inspired another generation of Olympians to come.
The least we can do as spectators is to help make sure they have a roof over their head while they go after their dreams.