Orlando Please Stand Up

Athletes Can - an organization representing the rights of Canada's amateur athletes staged their flagship event - the Athletes Forum in Vancouver B.C some three weeks ago. The purpose of the event is to bring athlete leaders from a cross section of amateur sports together and discuss issues that impact Canada's amateur athletes. And there are a number of them....some of which are

• 80% of Canada's amateur athletes live below the poverty line?
• The Disparate Nature of Amateur Sport in Canada.
• What happens after the Vancouver 2010 Games?
• Poor athlete representation.........(an issue for another day).

However, in reviewing the blog of Alexandra Orlando - Canada's most prominent athlete in the sport of rythmic gymnastics - one wonders if any of these issues were discussed. She writes "So here is my ode to AthletesCAN Forum 2009. Each morning started with an hour of yoga and went right into an amazing (oh, sorry no adjectives) breakfast." Orlando adds "We then entered the Delta Hotel Richmond’s ballroom where we began a day of super fascinating presentations. The first speaker was the President of AthletesCAN, who answered my burning question: “What is AthletesCAN?”

Orlando is an athlete we as Canadians should respect. She broungt home an incredible 6 gold medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and is a shining light in the sport that is largely dominated by Eastern European Nations. But she is naive. Yoga, is not going to solve the issues of the day for Canada's amateur athletes and as an athlete rep would would hope that her burning question would be a little more thought provocative than...."What is Athletes Can".

Orlando, however, isn't unlike a number of Canadian athletes today. After a succesful career in amateur sports athletes like Orlando long for the life of an sports administrator. And Athletes Can is just such an organization. Spend a few years and volunteer your time with Atheltes Can...enjoy some free breakfasts do some Yoga and see your career in sports administration take off. The script is following suit for Orlando. Orlando is going to the 2010 Commonwealth Games as an administrator!

Nine Lives?

On October 22, 2009 CanoeKayak - Canada's most succesful summer sport in terms of Olympic medals won over at the past three Olympiads- named Lorraine Lafreniere as Director General to replace the outgoing Anne Merklinger. Merklinger is largely credited (and rightfully so) for the success Canoe/Kayak Canada has enjoyed over the past decade leaving this blogger to wonder what Canoe/Kayak Canada is thinking.

Lafreniere was a carreer adminstrator having worked at the Canadian Olympic Committee, Coaching Association of Canada, Canadian Wheelchair Association before landing her first job with a National Sports Organization (Cycling Canada) in 2007. As CEO of Cycling Canada, Lafreniere openly admitted that she knew little of the organization she headed and it showed. Olympic medal winning performances in the sport went from 2 in 2004 to none in 2008. Road Races that were once fixtures of the sporting landscape disapeared. And as a result Cycling Forums had a field day with the woman http://www.cyclingforums.com/canada/379683-tell-us-lorraine.html before she finally resigned in March 2009.

In naming Lafreniere to head the organization Canoe Kayak Canada credited Lafreniere with instilling financial stability and strong high performance programs within Cycling Canada. If only
they researched the matter. During her tenure the sport faced financial difficulty while high performance programs were "restructured" (Dropped - according to this blogger) to deal with the financial woes.

Fortunately for Canoe/Kayak Canada individuals like Graham Barton remain, but with Lafreniere at the helm one has to wonder when even the sports most ardent supporters jump ship.

The Sweet Science No More.

Remember the days of Lennox Lewis, Shawn O' Sullivan and Willie Dewitt; amateur boxers who were once the pride of Canadian amateur sport. The Canadian Boxing Association wish you did. In a era where Canada's amateur boxing system was ranked in the top 10% in the world in the late 80's and early 90's the organization has fallen upon hard times and is now ranked in the bottom 10% of the world today. What happened?

The answer is a hard one to determine but no doubt can be a culmultion of lack of funds and internal struggles within. To start with funding one has to go back to 1995. In 1995 the government of Canada financed sport to the tune of $47 million per annum, of which $468,000 went to the sport of boxing. By 2006, sport funding had nearly tripled to $140 million per annum, but only $413,000 of that went to the Canadian Boxing Association, a decrease of nearly 11 percent. While certain sports have reaped the windfall of enhanced sport funding Boxing Canada has been a steady loser.

Internally things aren't much better. Pat Fiacco, an official with Boxing Canada and the mayor of Regina claims there is a serious lack of leadership within Boxing Canada. “The current administration is dysfunctional at best,” he says. “There isn’t a permanent national coach, there is no national training centre, our funding has been reduced, and we have half the membership we used to have."

All of which may explain why boxing, once one of Canada’s prolific sports, hasn’t produced an Olympic medallist in twelve years, failed to win a single gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games for the first time in its history, and qualified a single athlete – Adam Trupish – to the 2008 Olympic team.

Interestingly however, Canada's boxers are still amonst the very best.....professionally. Steve Molitor and Artruro Gatti are Canadian legends within the sport. So why is it that Sport Canada, the Own the Podium Program and the COC are allowing the sport to self destruct when it is evident that the sport can continue to produce Olympic medallists.

Isn't it time for someone to assist in the lab find another potion and re-discover the Sweet Science. This blogger thinks so.

Torch Bearer

With the 2010 Games now only months away debate will certainly rage on for the next few months as to who should light the Olympic Cauldron in Vancouver. Wayne Gretzky - Canada's most recognizable sport figure will certainly be given consideration but having only competed at one Olympic Games (1998) - and never having won an Olympic medal of any color - Gretzky's name should be quickly looked over.

Nancy Greene - an Olympic gold medallist at the 1968 Games in Grenoble - and securely linked to the sport of skiing will be given some thought, however, recognizing her role within the Canadian Senate political interference might prevent her name from being put forward.

There will be other notables of course and each will come with their own merits. However, the name that should be put forward is that of Gaetan Boucher - the man who helped create the foundation of Canada's dominant rise in Winter Olympic Sport.

Prior to Boucher's double gold and bronze medal winning perforamances in the sport of speed skating at the 1984 Games - Canada's performance in Winter Olympic Sport was limited to say the least. At the 1980 Games in Lake Placid - Canada won 2 medals one of which was by Boucher himself - a silver in the 1,000m - the other by Steve Podborski in Downhill Skiing. Canada hadn't won Olympic gold since 1976 (Kathy Kreiner) and no athlete had ever won multiple medals at a Winter Olympiad.

It was Boucher's performance in 1984 that helped spark interest in the sport of speed skating and spurned the start of Canada's next generation of Olympic athletes. Clara Hughes and Kristina Groves - two athletes who are expected to win medals in 2010 cite Boucher as the reason they first tried Speed Skating.

Perhaps it is time we recognized his legacy.

Schalm Wins Silver

Canada finished the 2009 world fencing championships with a best ever finish; a silver medal winning performance from Sherraine Schalm. In fact Schalm nearly won gold pushing her opponent to overtime after a 8-8 draw in regulation failed to solve matters. Schalm bowed out 20 seconds into the final never the less the performance was an impressive one.

In a sport dominated by Eastern Europeans - Schalm's success at the world championships is all the more impressive when one considers the envioronment from which she comes from. In Canada, fencing is seen as having little medal potential in future Olympiads.

However, Schalm claims that her success can in part be attributed to her decision to train as as a full time athlete in Hungary.

Unfotunately training in Hungary comes with its own hurdles. Entering the 2008 Olympics Schalm was considered a medal hopfull in the sport having won bronze at the 2005 world championships. However, shortly before the start of the 2008 Olympics, Schalm was told by her coach that she was no longer welcome to train with the Hungarian national team; She lost in the opening round of the Games to a Hungarian.

Never the less if not for the decision to train abroad, one doubts if Schalm would have ever gotten to the world championships in 2009 let alone win a medal. It is with little wonder then that after winning silver she burst into tears. The journey has been a long one.

The Launch

Heatstroke, Why Canada's Summer Olympic Program is Failing and how We can Fix It, by Michael Simonson,is a passionate diagnosis of Canada's Summer Olympic performances and the disparate nature of amateur sport in Canada.

With over 80 per cent of all athletes living below the poverty line and billions of dollars being applied towards various sport causes, only our athletes have an interest in improving things within Canada. Heatstroke exposes the systemic causes of Canada's Summer Olympic failures against the backdrop of the country's increasing Winter Olympic success and the rise of summer athletes in Australia, a country that used to trail its northern Commonwealth cousin. Written with an understanding of Canada's wide-ranging affection for sporting activities, Simonson looks to preserve this part of our cultural identity, but something has to be done and fast.

"Unless Canadians start speaking to the importance of sport, we are at risk of losing a large piece of our cultural fabric in Canada," says Michael Simonson. "We need to examine Canada's Winter Olympic system and implement many of the ideas and programs if our summer athletes are going to be successful."

Simonson speaks about the politics that lie beneath the surface of Canada's Olympic movement, as well as within the country's amateur sport system, coaching ranks and amongst athletes themselves. He argues that Canada's summer athletes can replicate the success that Canadians have come to expect of their winter counterparts without it requiring a fundamental shift in societal and fiscal priorities.

"We don't seem to have the same leadership in summer sports," says Frank King, president of the Calgary Organizing Committee for the 1988 Winter Olympics. "We can't seem to get things together - but if ever there was a model on how to do it, all summer sports would need is to look at how our winter sports did it."

With interest in amateur sport greater than it has ever been, there is no better time for change than now. In Heatstroke, Simonson provides his own plan that will help restore our sporting legacy at the SummerOlympics while maintaining our present rate of success at the WinterGames.

The official book launch of Heatstroke will take place at the Gerry Thomas Gallery (602 11 Avenue SW) on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 and include a copy of the book. To purchase tickets, call403.589.2989. Heatstroke can also be purchased online at www.heatstrokethebook.com for $19.95.

Dwindling Moments

With the talk surrounding Canada's top 10 Winter Olympic Moments one has to wonder what a Summer List would like like. In particular what athletic moments would resonate with the Canadian public today?

There is Donovan Bailey's gold medal winning performance in the 100m in Atlanta. As well who could forget Canada's gold medal winning victory in the 4 x 100m relay in the very same games. Going further back the 1992 Games saw Lennox Lewis first make a name for himself and who dares forget the 1988 Games that saw Ben Johnson win Olympic gold in the 100m dash in a world record time of 9.79 seconds. The 1984 Games had Willie Dewitt, Shawn O'sullivan, Anne Ottenbrite, Alex Baumann andVictor Davis. However some of these performances occurred over 25 years ago and are now but a distant memory for most Canadians. Meanwhile Cindy Klassen, Catriona Lemay Doan, Sale & Peltier are the names of the day. Unfotunately these names are associated with winter sport in Canada.

When it comes to the Summer Olympic Games Lemaze, Hunyh, Shewfelt, Muenzer, Hamilton are some of those that have produced Canadian gold this decade - but are they memorable Olympic moments? Only Canada can answer that, but who are they again?