The 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics not only left a lasting imprint on the city of Calgary, it also created the foundation for the creation of a sporting institute where all of Canada’s best winter athletes could train in one location. The organization responsible for maintaining the facilities from these Games is WinSport Canada.
Committing the legacy of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games WinSport Canada has evolved into one premier sport-development organizations in the world. Consider that of the 156 Canadian athletes who competed at the 2002 Winter Games, 85 of them were from Alberta. At the 2006 Torino Games, 66% of Canada's medalists were Alberta based. And the facilities these athletes trained on were managed by WinSport Canada.
However, with the global economic downturn and a legacy fund tied to equity markets, WinSport Canada has lost 20% of its total value since 2007 and is now struggling to find the funds to pay for the day to day operations of the Olympic Oval and Canada Olympic Park. The net effect is that WinSport is trimming its budgets at its facilities. While the effect of these cuts will unlikely be seen in Vancouver it is possible that with in 2014 and beyond - the Calgary legacy and the subsequent success of Alberta based athletes may be coming to an end.
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