Four time Olympian Clara Hughes urges corporations to sponsor more athletes during a news conference in Calgary on Wednesday. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Speed skater Clara Hughes is calling on corporations to sponsor athletes before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Hughes held a news conference in Calgary on Wednesday where she said there isn't enough money for athletes who could potentially win medals. She said she has teammates with little to no money at all.

She added that the pressure on these athletes will be unprecedented when the world is watching in 2010, and they need money to meet their goals.

Hughes won a 5,000-metre long-track speedskating gold medal at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

She is also the first Canadian to win medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, having won a speedskating bronze medal in Salt Lake City in 2002 and two cycling bronze medals in 1996 in Atlanta.

With files from the Canadian Press