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VIEWPOINT: PETER HADZIPETROS: BACK OF THE PACKIt'll
take more than money
So
you think Canada’s Olympic medal haul will hit new heights
just by tossing around a little more cold cash?
Olympic
top dog Jacques Rogge seems to think so. He wants to take a trip
to Ottawa to tell Prime Minister Paul Martin that Canada needs to
spend more to ensure Canadians make more trips to the podium. Rogge’s
concerned that come 2010, when the Olympic flame spends some time
in Vancouver, Canada could become the only country to host the Olympic
games three times without winning a gold medal.
The Canadian
Olympic Committee says it’s thrilled that Rogge’s concerned
enough about Canada’s dwindling haul to try to make the case
for more money before the government.
“If it
takes the president of the IOC to wake some folks up on Parliament
Hill, I'll buy the ticket,” COC president Michael Chambers
told reporters before everyone packed up and left Athens. “I
see nothing but positives with respect to President Rogge's suggestion
in that regard.”
Canada’s
sports minister – Stephen Owen – said he’s happy
to meet with Rogge. But, he added, the federal government has already
boosted funding for amateur sports from $90 million a year to $120-million.
Owen’s suggesting Ottawa’s priorities should be on getting
more kids involved in sports rather than increase its support for
elite athletes.
Thing
is, physical education isn’t even mandatory in a lot of high
schools in Canada. A 12-minute jog south of my house sits one of
those great big Mississauga high schools. It has a football field
out back, and a big scoreboard – including an ad from a fast
food restaurant. The field’s surrounded by a track. Problem
is, it’s been ages since anyone’s used it for racing.
The gravel surface has been taken over by weeds.
Owen’s
right. To a point.
This
country’s really good at churning out pro hockey players.
We’ve invested in the infrastructure. Put four houses together
anywhere in this country and, minutes after one of my relatives
opens a greasy food joint, someone’s going to build an arena.
Ken Parker is
the driving force behind runnersweb.com, a wonderful resource site
for runners and triathletes. Parker knows something about the decline
of the Canadian athlete. He ran the Ottawa marathon in a time of
two hours and 42 minutes in 1981 – good for 118th. This year,
that time would have put him in 30th spot.
Lavishing money
on pro sports at the expense of amateur athletes is a sore spot
with him.
“The
province of Ontario and the City of Ottawa collectively subsidize
the Corel Center in Ottawa to the tune of $4 million or so per year,”
he says. “That money would build up to four indoor training
facilities in Ottawa, which, by the way, has no indoor track.”
It
doesn’t end there.
“The
city also built a $25 million baseball stadium for an American team,”
he point out. “The attendance at their games measures in the
hundreds and it is only a matter of time until they leave and the
city is left with a single use baseball stadium - it will make a
great snow dump. While all this money is being spent on mercenary
sports teams the city is closing wading pools!”
But it’s more than just money.
Have
you been to a high school track meet in the past year? Taken in
one of the big road races, where weekend warriors can run with (for
a few steps, anyway) world class runners?
In
the middle of October, a few thousand runners take part in the Toronto
International Marathon – my first race back in 2002. A wonderful,
challenging course, if you don’t mind taking constant abuse
from drivers angry that your race is adding a few minutes to their
drive. The same drivers who just last week were feverishly following
the goings on of our track and field team in Athens. Yes, they’ll
be cheering again – in four years.
While a defrocked
priest grabbed headlines by grabbing the lead marathoner in the
final event of those wonderful Olympics, very few people in this
country noticed that Tom Evans of Penticton, B.C. and Lisa Bentley
of Caledon, Ontario made it a Canadian sweep at the Ironman Canada
Triathlon.
Our major media
outlets sure didn’t notice.
There will be
some gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts demanding that Ottawa
do more to ensure that Canada does better at future Olympic Games.
The mainstream media will continue to report on it, too, until the
World Cup of Hockey – that artificial construct of a rich
professional hockey league and a union of wealthy hockey players
– heats up.
It’s not
just up to Stephen Owen.
While
money would help our amateurs, it is not the only thing needed.
Blaming a coach, who may or may not, have not been doing as much
as he should have, is not the only solution to the problem. The
atlethes are the ones competing in the events; ultimately, they
are the ones who will either win or lose the event.
The
coach can only guide them so far. It's up to the atlethe to do
the rest. Some of Canada's team members were saying that "I
beat my personal record, I'm happy." The fact that the atlethe
came in 4th or 5th didn't seem to bother him. Maybe we should
re-evaluate the thinking of our atlethes as well as the coaching
methods.
Louise
Lauzon
Ottawa, Ont.
............
Thanks for the great article. I thought I was
the only one ticked off that no sports media had any coverage
of the Ironman Canada race in Penticton.
They report stories about super rich American
athletes (Kobe Bryant) but ignore a huge race like Ironman Canada??
This was the first time ever that a local won
the race as well. Talk about a sports story, over 2180 athletes
who have trained hard for at least a few years, swimming 3.8 kms,
biking 180 kms (over mountain passes) and then capping it over
with a full 42.2 km marathon distance run.
That, in my books is a sports story worth writing
about. I can tell you from personal experience that watching an
event like that inspires people get off their couch and start
getting fit as they too could be crossing the finish line one
day.
Thomas Redden
Vancouver, B.C.
............
I read your article on CBC Sports Online with
interest.
It seems we have a few problems with sports: our
top-calibre amateur athletes get too little to live on, our coaching
is apparently not at the level it needs to be, and the facilities
don't seem to be available except across the country somewhere.
Our kids would rather play X-Box and Playstation
than exert themselves and phys-ed isn't mandatory in many Canadian
highschools.
When a marquee event (like the Olympics) hits
the scene, almost everyone's on board. But after the excitement
dies down, the urgency to do something dies, too.
When sports are taught in school, I'd like them
to be taught in a time frame to allow the students to then participate
outside of the school environment.
Curling season, for example, will start just after
Thanksgiving. Timely exposure of kids to curling could allow them
to join a league for the winter season. If they enjoy it, they
might be turned on to participating in that sport even after they
leave school. (Thinking back many years to my own highschool experience,
I can't think of a single "murderball" league.)
Think of the sports that kids can join outside
of school and then wonder why we can't get the kids fired up to
join them. Even intramural sports / houseleague sports can encourage
kids to participate in sports for a lifetime. (We've heard of
lifelong learning; why isn't there an emphasis on lifelong activity?)
Doug Frith
Toronto, Ont.
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Peter Hadzipetros writes background and indepth features
for CBC News Online. Until he got into long distance running a few years ago,
he was a net importer of calories. He's run several marathons, including two Bostons.
In Oct. 2004, he recorded a PB of 3:09.21 in Columbus.
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