With the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games now only a few months away Canadian athletes are in full preparation mode. The training is now a little more intense, the focus a little sharper and the time frame a little shorter with each passing day. At the heart of this final prepatory push is a sporting system that gives athletes access to sporting facilities more often than ever before. However, in the face a global recession unforseen in this land for over 80 years sporting facilities are closing their doors as oppossed to opening them. This situation is particulary dire at the Olympic Oval in Calgary where Canada's National Speed Skating Team is training.
Over 50% of the Olympic Oval's operating budget is derived from WinSport Canada, an organization who has seen over $40 million dollars in legacy funds vanish in the wake of the 2008 stock market meltdown. The net effect is that the operating budget of the Olympic Oval has been cut from $3.9 million to $2.1 million resulting in the facility having to close its doors for 7 of the next 12 months. That means some of Canada's top medal hopefuls will have to wait until September fo 2009 to set foot on the fastest track in the world. The facility normally opens in July and the delay could cost Canada's Speed Skating Team medals in Vancouver, unless money can be found and fast.
Fortunately, $22 million in readily available through the Own the Podium Program - and could help alleviate the economic woes faced by the Oval and its tenants . The $110 million dollar Own the Podium Program, funded in part by the federal government was introduced in 2005 to give Canada's athletes the resources they need to succeed at the 2010 Olympics. With an annual budget of $22 million per annum one would could argue that the problems facing Canada's Speed Skaters could be readily solved by a program whose very purpose was to give athletes the resources they need to win in Vancouver. Why is it then than Canada's Speed Skaters continue to beg?
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