The winner of a complete set of medals and the Olympic carrier of the Canada flag in Beijing’s closing ceremonies is indebted.
Isabelle Weidemann did not feel comfortable affirming how far it is in red. Ottawa’s 29 -year -old woman is paying for things that her national sports organization can no longer pay.
“Even at this upper level, three Olympic medals had to carry the flag, the hope is that you leave the other side and you are not very far from zero, that you do not have to spend years digging this Hole,” said Weidemann. “To think that we fight to buy groceries, fight to maintain the equipment or buy training needs, all these expenses only to be able to compete with the rest of the world, there is so much discrepancy there.”
The Speed Skating Executive Director of Canada, Joe Morissette, acknowledged that his organization has reduced.
“For many years, we have retired in certain areas,” he said. “If the financing is stagnant, we can only do a lot.”
The last increase in central federal financing for the 62 National Summer and Winter Sports Organizations in Canada was in 2005.
Central financing is the money in which all NSOs count to finance operations, athletes, coaches and support personnel. Freestyle Canada’s executive director, Peter Judge, called him the “blood in the veins” of his organization.
It is different from having the podium money, which is aimed at sports that demonstrates medal potential.
A year of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, Canadian athletes are winning World Cup medals every weekend in multiple sports.
The nine gold medals of Canada and 27 in total last year in Paris were records of a summer Olympic did not know.
But many sports leaders say that these results are not sustainable due to the shortage of balloons under them.
Reduced services for the best athletes, such as less paying payments and less access to a team doctor on the road, and the decreased support for the next generation were common themes. The value of two decades of inflation since 2005 was summoned as an aggravating factor.
The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees pressed on behalf of national sports organizations for an increase of $ 104 million in basic annual funds in the 2024 budget.
The money was not carried out, although the athletes received a 23 percent increase in their checks of the athlete assistance program (AAP) monthly (AAP), from $ 1,765 per month to approximately $ 2,170.
This increase is eaten by athletes who pay for more training and competition costs, and for an increase in “team rates”, which is what athletes pay their federations.
The load ‘falls on athletes’
Bobsledders bifurcaba between $ 20,000 and $ 60,000 from its own pockets to the Bobsleigh Canada skeleton, that CEO Kien Tran said it was an increase of five times compared to the previous year.
“If I could summarize it, due to this lack of funds, sports in Canada are becoming only paying to play,” Tran said. “It is found in athletes. You may not be obtaining the best athletes. You may get the best athletes that can pay this.”
Speed Skating Canada has reduced the rates of the team marginally, but “we have also downloaded many new costs to our participants,” Morissette said.
The survey data indicate that 80 percent of the NSOs are omitting competitions that athletes would normally attend, 70 percent have stopped, reduced or eliminated programming, 90 percent have reduced or eliminated training fields and the 80 percent has increased athlete rates, said the CEO of Coc, David David, CEO David. Shoemaker.
“This is not conjectures. We made Deloitte conducted a study, and now he has reached the point where Deloitte’s forecast shows that these will have an aggregate deficit of $ 329 million in the next five years,” said Shoemaker.
The federal policy is in flow, and an election could bring a seventh ministerial change in eight years to the sports portfolio.
“Our government is still committed to support our national sports organizations [NSOs] And the athletes that inspire us, “said a statement from the office of the Federal Minister of Sports Terry Dugid, who was appointed in December.” We recognize the financial challenge they face, including the increase in training and competition costs. “
The statement referred to the increase in money from “carded” athletes last year, as well as $ 16 million committed to Safe Sport and $ 15 million to eliminate barriers to community sports programs for two years.
Young athletes who lose motivation on financing
The Olympic champion of Freestyle Cassie Sharpe and Speedskater Ivanie Blondin are alarmed by what they see when they look over their shoulders.
“Athletes B and C in the national team are in the national circuit to be in the world glasses and the world championship, but where those athletes used to have funds for flights and accommodation, the budget for that is much smaller,” he said Sharpe
Where once Speed Skating Canada sent a complete contingent of 24 long track skaters to international world glasses, they are now 16.
“We are seeing many young and talented athletes to lose motivation because the NSO does not have the means and funds to be able to send them to international events or send them to training fields,” Blondin said.
The executive director of Alpine Canada, Therese Brisson, says that the approach in the preparation of Olympic athletes leaves Nextgen athletes to finance.
“Only athletes with media can participate when you have equipment rates in the range of $ 45,000,” he said. “That keeps me awake at night.”
Shoemaker says that the government could direct more revenues of sports bets to the NSO. A Deloitte report published in 2024 stated that the second year of the regulated game in Ontario only produced $ 380 million in federal government revenues.
“That fiscal income could cover more than what we need as a contribution to the National Sports System,” Shoemaker said.
