After witnessing their winter counterparts catapult to Olympic stardom with a third place finish in the overall medal count at the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Canada's summer athletes started questioning, "Why not us?" However, glory takes money and support something Canada's winter athletes had an ambudence of heading into the 2006 and now the 2010 Olympic games.
At the heart of Canada's Winter Olympic successes was the Own the Podium (OTP)program, a radically new type of initiative that sought to place Canada in the top three of the medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics and on the medal podium in 2010 more often than had ever been accomplished before. A short year later, Canada’s winter sporting body achieved the first of its goals in Torino. Witnessing the success of their winter counterparts, Canada’s summer athletes soon began to ask, “What about us?”
In response, Canada's sporting brass implemented the Road to Excellence plan; a plan that, in essence, replicated the OTP program in every way except for one. The OTP Plan recieved every dime of its requested $110 million while the RTE plan plan recieved a measly $10 of its requested $510 million in funding. It wasn't until two years after its initial launch, that the federal government came forward and agreed to provide the RTE Plan with some monies - albeit a fraction ($72) of the requesed $510 million. And at that the program will now have to settle for a paltry $8 million in 2008-2009 before a continued source of funding arrives ($16 million in 2010 and $24 million in 2011 and 2012).
With the 2010 Games now only a few months away and the 2014 Winter Games on the horizon, Canada's winter brass is starting to look plan for life without an OTP Plan - (It was set to terminate following the conclusion of the Vancouver Games). And their sights? The $24 million in funding from Canada's RTE Program.
Following the 2010 Games Canada's RTE Plan and its summer athletes will be asked to share its $72 million in government funding with their winter counterparts leaving them with an even smaller pie to work with. Own the Podium it is not. And as for the success of Canada's Summer Athletes in 2012? Lets just hope that global warming is a myth. Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow!
