:
Chairman and honourable members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity this morning.
A biathlon is a sport that receives very little attention in Canada. Elsewhere in the world biathlon is a major spectacle that fills cold stadiums with 30,000 plus animated spectators. Once every four years Canadians get an opportunity to see our national team perform. This provides a vital but limited window upon a dedicated group of athletes who are focused 24-7, 365 days of the year on performing a perfect race.
Biathlon is all about the relentless pursuit of perfection. An athlete can ski the fastest but miss their last target and lose the race. The very next day the same athlete can shoot perfectly, but not ski fast enough to win. Even leaving with a medal around your neck is no guarantee that a performance was truly perfect. Biathletes obsess about how to get closer to this mission.
I'll provide a few quick facts about Biathlon Canada. We are the second-smallest winter Olympic sport organization in this country. Our participant base is made up of both civilian and cadet biathlon. Many young Canadians are exposed to low-level biathlon through the cadet program, but the transition from participation-based cadet biathlon to competition-based civilian is challenging due to the limited resources of many cadet families. Ultimately the majority of our national team come from a start in cross-country skiing. There are more than 50 biathlon clubs across the country and many of these clubs are integrated or partnered with larger cross-country ski clubs.
International biathlon is serious business. It is ranked as one of the most popular winter sports in Europe by TV audiences, magazines, fan clubs, trading cards, live broadcasts, and intense media scrutiny.
Biathlon has 27 medals available at Sochi. When biathlon and cross-country medals are counted together, they account for 40% of the total medals available. In Vancouver, Canada won none of these medals despite coming quite close. Canadians have had success in biathlon in the past. Myriam Bédard was a world champion and three-time Olympic medal winner with a bronze in Albertville and two golds in Lillehammer. Unfortunately, Biathlon Canada was unable to capitalize on or repeat this success.
In Vancouver we finished the games with a top-six result. We want to improve on this for Sochi. This season Biathlon Canada has two distinct goals. The first is to put an athlete on the podium. The second is to try to prepare the next generation of athletes for future success. Today I will speak specifically about our Sochi preparations. Our goals for Sochi are simple. We are doing everything we can to put an athlete on the podium. Achieving secondary goals will validate increased program strength, but will not contribute to the overall Team Canada performance at the Olympics. With our performance partners we have targeted support for our athletes. This strategy involved identifying a group of potential athletes eight to twelve years in advance, and each year challenging them to become faster, more accurate, and more dedicated.
Biathlon Canada is heavily dependent on governmental support. This has meant that our plans have been adjusted as our performance partners target resources according to their unique and sometimes uncoordinated efforts. In the pre-Olympic season we won our first World Cup gold medal in 20 years, and collectively our team had its best-ever world championship performance.
To improve our athletes we focused on several strategic programs and methods. In preparation for the 2010 Olympics we shared a special treadmill with Speed Skating Canada. This meant driving an hour to the Olympic Oval for training in Calgary, and then driving another hour back to our training centre in Canmore. Thanks to the investment from OTP and WinSport, we have a new ski treadmill in Canmore for our use.
OTP has supported the development of our biathlon shooting lab, which uses pressure sensors and motion sensors to help improve our shooting accuracy.
We use a walk-in refrigerator, where we are able to simulate extreme weather conditions while doing ammunition testing. This is actually done at a decommissioned tunnel that was built for the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games.
We expose our athletes to altitude training at specific times during the training cycle, to improve their cardiovascular performance. WinSport Canada has provided access to the Beckie Scott high-altitude training centre on the Haig Glacier.
Training at an altitude of 2,700 metres is only an hour’s drive and a 10-minute helicopter ride away from Canmore. Unfortunately, we can't shoot during our multiple three- to four-day stays on the glacier, so for more comprehensive training, we went back to Park City, Utah, and to Dachstein, Austria, for sustained altitude and high-low-high-low training.
To assist our national team staff, we invited several world-class coaches and researchers to our national training centre, for insight into strength, recovery, technique, and shooting. OTP and the Canadian Sport Institute, Calgary, supported this initiative to help us build our own pool of Nordic experts that will be a key factor in sustained success, post-games.
Our preparation has been focused on optimizing performance. We believe we have maximized what we can with the resources provided, but it has not been perfect. We have several challenges, heading into the games. The gradual reduction in our high-performance money has led to dropping support programs and increasing costs to our athletes. Having no funds directly targeting the next generation of athletes will be a major hurdle for us going forward.
One side effect of Canada's funding system is that Nordic sports are disadvantaged in the current funding formulas. The one-size-fits-all standard prioritizes for winter sports but it does not control for Nordic sports' larger field sizes, opportunities for multiple medals by the same athletes, and the greater developmental time required to produce medal winners.
In spite of the challenges, we are very proud of the success we have had. Last season, Jean-Philippe Le Guellec won Canada's first World Cup gold medal. It was our first medal since 2007 and our first gold medal since 1994.
We have several advantages going into the games. Our focused use of technology has improved our ability to provide feedback and analysis, without creating additional work for our staff. Thanks to a comprehensive athlete tracking system, we know more about our Canadian athletes and more about how they compare to the world's best. As well, the elevation of Sochi is nearly identical to that of our Canmore national training centre. This will reduce the time needed for our athletes to acclimatize. With our extensive research into snow conditions, pre-Vancouver, we are world leaders in dealing with near-zero temperatures and heavy and unexpected snowfall, which we expect at the games.
:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
[English]
Thank you.
I appreciate the opportunity to come here today to speak to you about our preparation for Sochi. Canada Snowboard, I'm proud to say, does enjoy a lot of attention in Canada, and in the media, and in the action sports world.
We are the governing body for the sport of snowboarding in Canada. Our mission is to lead snowboarding from park to podium. That word “park” refers to the snow parks that exist at the resorts where young athletes, young kids, begin their long-term athletic development pathway, learning to snowboard and getting excited about being on the hill.
Our vision is for Canada to be recognized as the world-leading snowboard nation. I believe we've effectively achieved that. We consistently win the most medals on the FIS Snowboard World Cup as well as the World Snowboard Tour. Last year we won an aggregate of 54 medals, which placed us in the top rank when you aggregate the pro and traditional tour models. But we're also recognized for our world-leading sport development programs. That's our training for coaches, judges, officials, and it's shared and copied around the world, which is a point of pride for us. We also host and deliver some of the best World Cup competitions, as many as any other nation does.
All of that is thanks to the federal government. Our largest single funder is the federal government, and I thank all of you for supporting that.
We're also very fortunate to have a number of performance partners. We are grateful to Sport Canada for their investment through the OTP recommendations. We also were assisted by the international single sport hosting program, which is supported by the government to allow us to hold World Cups where our young athletes can get World Cup experience at home in Canada.
OTP, the Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Canadian Sport Institute are critical to our overall preparation for major games and our athletes in general. There are other valuable groups like B2ten. You will hear JD Miller speak about some of the efforts they are supporting in national sports.
Our corporate partners are an important part of this. Unfortunately, after the 2010 games, sponsor fatigue caused a reduction in funding directly to NSOs. This is a critical problem. The resources from those corporate partners are the resources we rely on to invest in the next generation of athletes. This is a problem we really need to work on.
We want to thank the provincial governments for their matching support for the international hosting program.
How did Canada Snowboard get to 2014? It's been a long way since Nagano in 1998. We won our first gold medal there. Many of you may remember those games and the controversy surrounding that gold medal.
At the Salt Lake games and the Torino games, we had tremendous success. We came close to the podium, winning one medal in Torino in 2006, a proud medal. But our success really came together with the investment leading to Vancouver, and that came through the creation of OTP and the increased funding from the federal government. We were always a great group of snowboarders on the world stage, but through OTP and that investment we became a great group of athletes supported by some of the best coaches in the world.
In 2010, we won three medals: two gold, one silver. It put us second to the U.S. In 2010 there were three medal events. In 2014 there are five medal events in snowboarding, with 30 medal opportunities. Our goal for Sochi is to win five medals. That's a big goal, and we're very confident we can do it.
Snowboarding will also be making its debut in the 2014 Paralympics for the first time. We have an athlete, a former world champion, on our roster. He competed in the 2010 games as a para-Nordic athlete. He has a shot at it, but in the 2014 games there's no factoring—they won't be factoring the level of disability of the athlete. So it will be difficult, but we have a shot.
So how are we prepared, and what is the evidence we can meet our medal goals? In fact, we're well on our way to qualify our full quota of 24 athletes for the games, and we could qualify as many as 26 athletes, which means we might end up leaving a couple of athletes behind. Twenty-four athletes represents 11% of the entire Canadian team so there is going to be a large group of snowboarders at the games, with 10 coaches and 15 medical and technical support staff. It's no small mission to put together.
Last year was a record year for our medal count. One of the major indicators for success at the games is performance at the world championships.
We were fortunate enough, with the support of the federal government and the Quebec governments, to host the world championships here in Canada. It's about a five-year process to bring the world championships to any nation. We tied for first place with Finland, at four medals. Although we only won four medals at those games, we also won two at the X Games. The X Games is a big pro event and it's almost considered a higher level of competition.
We currently have six top-five athletes, including two world champions and one X Games champion, going into the games, and I believe our team is as well prepared as we possibly can be.
Through your investment, our summer dryland and non-snow training camp program was the most comprehensive it's ever been. I've only been around as executive director since 2010, but spent 10 years working alongside Snowboard before that, so I can attest to the preparation of the dryland program this summer.
The entire team is free of injury, and fitness testing has proven that as a group our team is the fittest it has ever been. Your investment has allowed us to build replica courses that we'll be using in Sochi. We're fortunate that the builders who built the Vancouver courses, and are building the Sochi courses, are Canadians. They're good friends of ours, and they build us training courses and practice courses around the world on glaciers. That's not by accident.
We're also fortunate the top judges in the world are Canadians. It doesn't mean we have any ability to influence the judging, but we certainly have access to their expertise and their knowledge of the systems. That's also not by accident.
Your investment will allow us to host three Olympic and two Paralympic World Cup events here in Canada, leading to the games. The world's best will be in Lake Louise, Alberta, in late December, and in Quebec City in January, after which we'll announce our team formally.
The last piece of our preparation is familiarization. I can't say enough about this. The Canadian Olympic Committee, through their support and your investment, has allowed us to be on the ground in Sochi with our snow sport peers figuring out that very challenging environment, and I assure you it is a very challenging environment. I'm very confident that the level of preparation on the ground in Sochi that the Canadian Olympic Committee has will rival any nation in the world.
Your investments also allowed us to become recognized as one of the best organized snowboard nations in the world. We spend a lot of time with our peers at the International Ski Federation meetings, and we compare notes. And we're often compared to the Swiss. I don't mind that comparison.
In closing, to be at my eight minutes here, I want to thank you again, the federal government, for your help in our preparation. I remind you of one thing. Not only will our athletes stepping on the podium be a great source of pride, but this is an important economic driver. The ski and snowboard resort business in Canada is significant, and having a whole new generation of champions and role models, excitement and enthusiasm after the games, I hope and expect, will continue to drive people to the hills to enjoy what I enjoy, playing in the snow.
Thank you very much for your time today, and I look forward to your questions a little later.
:
Bonjour. Good morning.
Zdrastvuyte.
Thank you for the opportunity of being invited to appear here today.
I sit before you as a private citizen who believes in the positive impact of sport on society. For those not familiar with B2ten, we were formed out of necessity some 10 years ago to provide athletes a best-case scenario for success. Today, B2ten continues the aforementioned activities and invests in the development of professionals in key areas where insufficient availability exists. These programs are privately funded, making B2ten the largest funder of high-performance sport that is independent of the sports system.
[Translation]
Our independence gives us a unique outlook on the sports system, free from political limitations, restrictions or bureaucracy.
Our endeavours are wide-ranging, from filling specific gaps to delivering fully integrated programs tailored to the physical, mental, technical and strategic needs of athletes.
[English]
Why do individuals across the country activate putting up tens of millions of dollars with no commercial quid pro quo? They do so because of their conviction that sport and sport achievement are an integral part of a healthy, dynamic society.
[Translation]
This morning, I will briefly speak to the following elements: athletes and their preparedness for Sochi, funding, expectations for Sochi and next steps.
[English]
Over the past 20 years I've had the opportunity to know many Olympians. To this day, I never cease to be amazed by their passion, drive, determination for excellence, and pride in country.
[Translation]
I would have a hard time coming up with any other activity in which you strive to become the best in the world and where pride in your achievement is considered reward enough.
Every athlete's story is unique. Each one is worthy of recognition, and every Olympic medal is priceless.
[English]
As you know, our Olympic athletes work incredibly hard. Yet hard work alone is not enough. One needs to work smart, using the latest in technology, tools, and training methods to push performance envelopes. It is this element of constantly pushing up against the limits of what is impossible that makes high performance so very expensive.
For the current winter quadrennial we are of the view that preparedness has moved a step forward under the guidance of Own the Podium.
Canada's national sport organizations have generally improved their delivery of training and preparation programs.
[Translation]
Logistics and organization are critical components when it comes to putting on the games, especially far from home, as with Sochi. With that in mind, Canada's Olympic committee deserves to be recognized for the unprecedented amount of resources it has committed to ensure Team Canada is well-supported.
[English]
Turning to finances, how easy it would have been to scale back funding post-Vancouver. The Government of Canada did not do so and should be congratulated for having stayed the course. A stable source of long-term funding is required to succeed in the high-performance arena.
While it is incumbent on our sport organizations to pursue further enhancements and efficiencies such that government investment can be used to the highest level, there remain a number of areas in which obtaining results is fundamentally financially constrained. A few examples would be talent ID, individualized training programs such as those being pursued in the U.S., attracting the world's best professionals, and an expedited move to gold-standard governance.
[Translation]
If we want to remain a leading medal contender in winter sports, Canadian society must play a bigger role. In particular, that includes additional funding for sports organizations to put towards athlete training and preparation. At B2ten, we are looking to extend our reach to the 2018 and 2020 Olympic games and to step up our efforts to engage other groups directly in sports.
[English]
Going forward, Canada will require greater activation and funding on the part of provincial governments. Without doing so, over time we can expect to see a lesser number of athletes and a lesser quality of athletes ascending to the international competition scene.
As to Sochi results for able-bodied athletes, we expect there to be a good deal to celebrate. When comparing events to 2010, using performance analytics, one can expect to see a similar medal total. One then needs to add in the new events that will be debuting in Sochi. Canada is expected to do well in these new events given its history as an effective early adopter--think short track, think aerials--and as mentioned by Steven, some of the new events emanate from the X Games culture in which Canadians have been actively involved for many years.
With these new events, Canada is expected to deliver a record number of medals. On the subject of gold medals, a decline is expected. As to finishing first in the overall standings, we do not see this result.
While there will be much to celebrate in Sochi, immediately around the corner lies a period of challenge. As such, we must not be complacent.
[Translation]
If Canada's goal is to improve or even maintain its current standing, stakeholders will have to act swiftly. To that end, some fundamental questions will need to be answered: which sports matter to Canadians, what Canada's objectives are and how success should be measured.
[English]
Only once this is done will stakeholders be able act with common purpose, something that is central to becoming our best. For the near term, this is a time of anticipation and excitement. Let us get out and cheer loudly for Canada come February. Let us also be aware that it is the time for stakeholders to address the future.
Thank you very much for your time.
I look forward to answering any questions that might come this way.
:
Biathlon is an interesting situation, because it really only exists in a competitive arena at this point.
We have participatory programs at the low end, both through cadets and on the civilian side, whereby we are providing challenges beyond cross-country skiing that are effective for some populations of kids who are looking for something a little different.
Of course, we are dealing with a sport in which at some level you end up dealing with firearms, so you are already limiting yourself a little bit in your population because of both regulation and the general feeling around firearms in specific areas of the country and within specific demographic groups.
We're trying to push, on the technological side, towards using some of the technology we've developed in our shooting lab for testing high-performance athletes to bring the technology back down to the point at which we could provide biathlon as a sport for people without the stigma attached to firearms, using such things as what I'll call laser rifles in almost a laser-tag type of situation, because that's the type of technology people can understand, and bringing it down to the point of being able to reinforce participation starting right at eight years of age, with kids who are interested in a challenge other than just doing loops around the park.
We see this as a potential benefit, but we don't foresee in the next 10 years any change at the international level.
:
The cadet program, which is run by the military, is a huge source of exposure to biathlon. Cadet units across the country have the opportunity to do biathlon as one of their optional fitness activities each year.
The cadet program is not terribly good at telling us how many people are exposed to biathlon, but looking at average cadet numbers from each of the land force areas, we estimate the number at between 3,500 to 4,000 young athletes who have exposure.
Unfortunately, the population who are involved in cadets tends to be from a lower income demographic. One of the challenges we have in biathlon is that as soon as you look to move outside of the cadet program, in which everything is provided directly to you—skis, boots, poles, and the rifle—and move into the civilian side, you need to provide all this equipment for yourself. That can be a very steep initial upgrade for people. Unfortunately it's not like triathlon, in which, if you want to do a triathlon, you can start out on your BMX bike and still participate.
The reality in biathlon currently is that we don't have distinct levels of technology that can get you up to using Olympic-calibre equipment. An athlete at age 16 anywhere in the world will go immediately to the very same rifle system that is being used by the top people who compete. That means a $4,000 investment. Of course, we need to be careful with such things as clubs owning rifles or getting grants to own rifles, because then you have an issue with who is in actual control of the rifle. This is generally an area that we just don't want to get into.
This is why I think that using some of the technology we have been able to put together in the shooting lab and finding ways to bring costs down so as to be able to put together a $500 biathlon system would be a major boon for us.
:
The funding models in Canada are based primarily on two things: there is general participation across the country, and there is high-performance success. In sports such as ours, which are focused primarily on competition at the high end, we inevitably have fewer people who compete, compared with other sports. Everyone compares with hockey; none of our sports will ever become hockey.
The challenge I suggested in my presentation about the discrepancies among our funding partners is that often, in order to gain more results, we need to train more athletes and be able to reach out our identification of talent deeper into the Canadian population.
Unfortunately, as a sport that hasn't been able to crack into the medals regularly at the Olympics, certainly not for the last 20 years, we are not able to access any money to do that, and so the system tends to revolve around people who are performing and will then continue to put money into those sports to the detriment of other sports.
I have some sympathy for sports that are doing well. They should continue getting funding. I totally agree with that. However, when I look at the overall mission, particularly the mission of OTP, which is to try to win medals, if we're leaving 40% of the medals at the Winter Olympic Games off the table because we are not adequately funding those sports and are not making the long-term investments required for real progress, we will eventually get to a position in which we have a Canadian on every single podium but will still not have access to that 40% of the medals.
If that's what we are looking to do, then that's great. If it's not, then....
:
Thank you very much. I will be brief, because I know we're all really here to talk to Elizabeth.
Voices: Oh, oh!
Mr. Ian Moss: First, let me thank the committee for this opportunity to provide you with an update on planning for the Olympic speed skating team program leading up to Sochi.
[Translation]
With less than 70 days remaining before the opening ceremonies, we are now in our selection and competition preparation phase for both our short track and long track teams.
[English]
We are confident that they will remain Canada's leading medal program for the winter Olympics and provide up to one third of the total medals for Canada as we continue to push toward our collective goal of contending for top position in total medals won in Sochi.
I'd like to provide you first with a snapshot of our team's current preparation, and then speak further to the strong support provided by the Government of Canada for both our high-performance and development programming.
[Translation]
As an organization, we are very proud of the fact that we count all territories and provinces amongst our membership and that our national teams draw athletes from all segments of society and regions of the country.
[English]
First, our short-track team are well into their preparation plans for Sochi. We were the first team nominated to the Olympic committee and approved. That was back in August. They have now completed their World Cup qualifying process for Sochi, as I'm sure you followed in the news. We're actually just waiting for the final announcements from our international federation, but we're almost 100% certain now that we have qualified a full team for the Sochi games, which is of course what our goal was. That means we'll have three athletes competing in each distance and in the team pursuit.
The long-track team process is a bit...slow is the wrong word, but they're just in the midst of their World Cup qualifying at the moment. We hosted, as Canada, the first World Cup event of the year, the largest one in many years, on the fastest ice in the world, which is at the Calgary Olympic Oval, of course a fabulous legacy from the 1988 Olympics. In December, we will be selecting the team and will move forward with the Olympic committee on the announcements and so on for that. Again, our goal is to qualify a full team on the long-track side based on our country quota.
Many of you know the success that speed skating has enjoyed at the Olympic Games over the years. Of course it's much due to the strength of our clubs and provincial/territorial programs as feeders to the national program. But we've also been able to build a strong high-performance infrastructure at both our national training centres, at Maurice Richard Arena for the short-track program in Montreal, and at the Calgary Olympic Oval for long-track.
Our coaches and sport-science support teams are world class. Research into leading-edge technology in our sport maintains our competitive edge. Our commitment to the long-term athlete development model ensures that we are identifying and retaining athletes in our system for future national teams. We're very appreciative of the support that we get from Sport Canada through the Government of Canada, and of course Own the Podium, and we do have some considerable support from our corporate sponsors. So that goes towards our strength in the high-performance program and our continued development on the domestic side.
We are equally proud of our collective efforts in the area of domestic programming, providing engagement opportunities for all Canadians regardless of social and economic status. With 14,000 members, 140 clubs across all territories and provinces, we offer a natural opportunity for all Canadians to become engaged and to embrace our winter climate. Much of our activity remains outdoors, so on natural ice.
[Translation]
We have a very strong presence in the province of Quebec—which is home to almost half our membership—and so we remain vigilant in our presentation of the sport in both official languages.
[English]
We're proud of the growth of the sport in all parts of the country, and extremely proud of the fact that we have a short-track team member, an Olympic team member, from the Northwest Territories and a leading long-track member from northern B.C., clearly showing there aren't any real geographic boundaries to opportunities in speed skating.
Turning back to Sochi and Russia, there have been comments previously, but we're very confident of the preparations done by the Olympic Committee in conjunction with the various sports. I think you're pretty familiar with the nominating process that sports go through. We're in the process of doing that now with the Olympic Committee. When athletes become members of the Olympic team, they adhere to the policies and protocol as outlined by the Olympic Committee relationship.
Speed Skating Canada will have board and senior staff representation on site in Sochi. We feel very confident that our relationship with the Olympic Committee staff is strong, and we're ready for any eventuality.
[Translation]
In closing, I would like to reiterate to this committee the importance of continued support for sport infrastructure development in Canada, and for the international competition hosting grant program.
[English]
Speed Skating Canada has a strong reputation with our international federation for hosting international competitions, and that's both World Cups and world championships. Hosting provides us with a competitive edge for our athletes, a public profile for the sport both locally and nationally, and a platform to recognize the support of government and our corporate partners in the promotion of a healthy and competitive nation.
We're also well aware that our two main hosting and national training facilities, the Calgary oval and the Maurice Richard Arena are aging and have a relatively short operating lifespan ahead of them. We must plan with our government and municipal partners now for options a decade or more away with respect to the replacement of these facilities for Canadian sport to remain competitive and relevant in the international sport community.
I thank you for providing me with this opportunity to share my thoughts and our plans with respect to Sochi's success, and as importantly, for me to commend the Government of Canada for its continued commitment to amateur sport. I hope that we, as Speed Skating Canada, embody the principles of engagement, pluralism, and performance that are seen as reflective of our ideals, not only for Canadians but also as Canadians on a world stage.
Merci.
:
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
My name is Daniel Thompson, and I am proud to be here today as the CEO of Skate Canada.
[English]
I'd like to thank the committee members for their interest in hearing more about the preparation of our athletes for the upcoming 2014 winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. I am privileged to be joined this morning by someone who inspired a nation 25 years ago when she won the silver medal in ladies' figure skating at the 1988 Olympic winter Games in Calgary.
Just before Liz Manley shares her passion for our sport with you, I wanted to help you understand more about skating in Canada and our preparations for these games. Skating is integral to our nation's culture and sporting history. Skate Canada is the organization that teaches Canadians to skate, from Vancouver Island to St. John's, Newfoundland, and north to Iqaluit. Every athlete who will compete in Sochi started out in CanSkate, the pre-eminent learn-to-skate program developed and offered by Skate Canada for over 25 years. Now with over 183,000 registered members in more than 1,200 clubs, and 5,200 professional coaches, Skate Canada provides everyone, from toddler to senior, the opportunity to learn to skate. While some will go on to play hockey and ringette or join my colleague Ian Moss' group at Speed Skating Canada, many others will learn to skate for fun and to know the joy of skating.
Others pursue their dreams in competitive skating to the highest level. Our 2014 figure skating team members each began at a community rink, driven there by a dedicated parent, greeted by amazing volunteers who run the clubs, and taught by a caring, professional coach.
Because our athletes had outstanding results at the world championships in London last March, with seven placements in the top 10, we have qualified the largest figure skating team of any country for the Sochi games, with 17 athletes, the same number that Canada sent to Calgary in 1988.
Leading the team are the reigning Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, from the Ilderton Skating Club; our three-time world champion Patrick Chan, from Toronto; the current bronze medallists in pairs, Meagan Duhamel from Lively, Ontario, and Eric Radford from Balmertown, Ontario; and Kaetlyn Osmond, who began skating in Newfoundland and now trains in Alberta.
These athletes and the 11 others who will join them will head to the Sochi games with world-class preparation and a superb support team. The financial contribution of the federal government's funding program—in particular, the Own the Podium program—has been vital to these athletes. They are able to train full time and to have access to all the best facilities, coaching, and integrated sports services, which will help them compete to the highest level.
Canadian figure skaters have won 22 Olympic medals, more than any other winter sport except for speed skating and short track. We have no doubt that this total will be increased this year, especially with the new team event added to figure skating. Canada's depth across all four disciplines makes us a contender in this new competition.
As well, 2014 is a special year for Skate Canada as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Canadian figure skating championships here in Ottawa from January 9 to 14. In celebration of this centennial, several of our 2014 Olympic figure skaters will join us next fall for a special tour that will visit towns, cities, and clubs across Canada. Their success stories will especially encourage new Canadians to learn the joys of skating and to understand why skating is truly Canadian.
I was fortunate to be in the Calgary Saddledome on the night that Liz Manley electrified the crowd with her free skate and won the silver medal. It was one of those heart-stopping, goosebump moments that we all remember. Her inspiring performance captured a nation. I'd like you to hear more about our sport from Liz.
Thanks, Liz.
Thank you, everyone, for having me here today.
As an Olympic year approaches, I find myself looking back at my life and my journey to the Olympics. If you can believe it, it all started when I was three years old, by borrowing a pair of my brother's hockey skates. It wasn't long before my parents realized that I absolutely loved to skate and they enrolled me in what we call CanSkate lessons. As my love for skating grew quickly, my parents sacrificed their time and their financial resources to help me realize my dream.
My heroes were the women in the sport, especially the ones from right here in Ottawa, Barbara Ann Scott and Lynn Nightingale. So many aspects of my skating life have come full circle for me. I started skating right here in Nepean, Ontario, and then moved to Trenton, Ontario. Now I have the privilege of coaching young future skaters nationwide. In 1978—yes, I'm telling my age—I was a flower retriever at the World Figure Skating Championships here in Ottawa, and I was out there picking up the flowers thrown on the ice after the skaters' performances, and skated madly back to hand them to my idols. One of them included Scott Hamilton, who then went on to become the 1984 Olympic champion.
Recently, a couple of weeks ago, I selected some of the flower retrievers who will start their dreams by doing the same role at the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Figure Skating Championships coming up in January. I am so thrilled when people come up to me and tell me they were so inspired by my skate in Calgary at the 1988 winter games. I still vividly remember every moment of those two weeks and being part of the team that included the great Brian Orser and the incomparable Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall. Our preparation for those games was extremely different from what this year's teams are going through. We often trained in isolation and rarely saw our fellow skaters, and we didn't have much attention from media in those days.
Today's athletes have more competitions, more expectations, and also an incredible team working with them. I've seen in the past few years how Skate Canada, with its high-performance camp at the start of each season, helps our athletes be fully prepared for their international assignments. It also builds a great team spirit. As well, the skaters have access to tremendous wealth and knowledge in the sports science field, nutrition, and sport-specific training, which was really lacking in my day. They are the best prepared team we've ever had.
Twenty-five years ago—once again I'm telling you my age—I was intimidated by the senior people at Skate Canada, while these skaters have come to know them and embrace them as the strong support team that they are. And it's not just strong support from Skate Canada, but from the COC, the federal government, and the corporate community. And most of all, they are a part of a warm, welcoming sport family. We didn't have the strong spirit that I see in today's sport world in Canada. Both the figure skating team and the wider Canadian Olympic team have had more opportunities to be together and to be prepared. When they arrive in Sochi, they will already feel as much a part of the Canadian team, ready to compete in their own event, and most of all, to cheer on their teammates in other sports. I wish them very much success.
Thank you
:
Good morning, and thank you for the invitation to speak to you today.
With Sochi Olympic preparation, our goal in CLA is to create an environment that allows the athletes to be completely confident that everything is in place so they can perform at their best.
I'll go through team selection, Olympic staffing, preparation and familiarization, our 2013-14 season, team leader meetings, pre-Olympic staging, potential issues, and athlete keys and expectations.
To start off, our team selection will be completed December 15. Our expectations for our team numbers for three-men would be: Sam Edney, Mitch Malyk, and John Fennell. On the women's side we have four qualifying for three spots: Alex Gough, Kim McRae, Arianne Jones, and Jordan Smith. We'll have one doubles team with Tristan Walker and Justin Snith, and the new team relay where we'll be very competitive is with Sam Edney, Alex Gough, Tristan Walker, and Justin Snith.
Important to our team's performance at the games, obviously, is staffing and they'll be led by our team leader, Walter Corey, who is our high-performance director. We've hired some of the best coaches in the world to ensure our team has everything in place. Our head coach is Wolfgang Staudinger, and assistant coach and technician is Bernie Glass. We were able to get a Russian assistant coach added to our team, Mikael Zavialov, because we felt it was very important to have a connection to the Russian environment.
We have one of the top strength and conditioning coaches in Jeremiah Barnert.
Public relations, which is very important at the games, will be taken care of by Chris Doran. As well, I will be there to coordinate with friends and family and sponsorship relations. It is very important that we keep the friends and families coordinated and away from our athletes, so they don't go to our athletes and expect their assistance while the athletes are in their Olympic bubble.
Our coaching plan is pretty simple. They are very long days and we want to ensure they are focused on high-priority tasks so they can maximize their coaching technical skills and minimize burnout.
It was very important for us to get a Russian connection, so we put a Russian coach on our team. He's been around since 2011.
We're going to focus on start-ramp coaching and on track in the key areas that are important for this track.
In order to compete properly at the games, we felt it was very important to familiarize ourselves with Sochi, so we've been there since 2009 in FIL Congress. In 2011, we attended a familiarization Canadian Olympic Committee tour. Our athletes have been on the track since March 2012, and we were able to get more of our people there than any other country, to explore the track itself.
We've attended two international training weeks in 2012 and 2013. We were able to do a sliding agreement with the Russian Federation where we were able to get 45% more run volume on the track than other teams. That was very important to us also.
In the season going forward, we were able to take our athletes to Germany in the summer to compete against the top athletes in the world at the start camp. That was perfect for our athletes to know where they were and develop what they needed to do this summer.
Our schedule is pretty simple. This fall we're in Norway, then to Austria, Germany, and then back to Canada and the U.S. for the final two World Cups before our qualification period has ended. We're doing our final preparations with our team leader, Walter Corey, who will be attending a team leader meeting on December 12 with the Canadian Olympic Committee to finalize the rooming lists, sled storage, and sled transportation in the village, and all the rest of the Olympic winter Games logistics.
Our pre-staging camp is going to be in Königssee, Germany, and obviously closer to the venue than Canada. We'll have the ability to access gyms, hockey rinks, start ramps, and be able to slide on a similar track to Sochi, so it will help prepare our athletes. There will only be a three-hour time change to Sochi. so we felt that was a perfect and comfortable place for our athletes to stage just prior to the games.
Our plan is to travel to the games on January 31 and avoid Moscow, which is what our team always needed to do—avoid Moscow because of the logistics issues up there. We'll be going Munich to Frankfurt and straight to Sochi. That's a nice win for our team.
We're arriving on February 1 and travelling straight to the main Olympic village, so our athletes can get acclimatized and take care of their outfitting in the main village. Then on February 2 we'll be heading straight up to the mountain villages, which is where our team will live and compete from.
Our basic schedule is that on February 3 we'll be right on the track inspecting it, on February 4 we'll be starting training, and we'll get into official training on February 5. Our events are February 8 and 9 for the men's race, February 10 and 11 for the women's race, February 12 for the doubles competition, and the team relay is on February 13.
We have identified some potential issues, for example, we have no night training, but all the races are in the evening, which is difficult for our athletes to get used to, the different light. We were able to do some race simulation in the evenings during the international training week to combat this potential issue. One of the other issues concerned a place to tune our equipment. We've worked with the Canadian Olympic Committee, which has been very helpful in securing space at the Olympic village and at the track, should we need to do some sled preparation at the track.
The Russian home-track advantage is one of our big issues, which is the reason we ensured we did a track exchange with the Russians to get as much extra training as we could on the competition track.
One of the other issues we were dealing with is an equipment change or a rule change this spring. We were able to purchase the equipment needed to test our sleds this summer to ensure we came into the season with equipment that was up to snuff and would be legal for racing at the Olympic Games.
One of the big changes for us is the team relay. An issue we're dealing with is that usually when our athletes complete their event they're finished, but now they're going to have a couple more days and then race again in the team relay. So we have plans in place to ensure that our men's athlete will continue to train once he's finished his singles event. When it comes to Alice Goff, we're hopeful that she'll be in the medals for a women's race, so we have a victory plan in place so she can celebrate her win and then get right back and focused for the team relay two days later.
[English]
I didn't witness those Olympics. I was in my mother's stomach at that time. Well, not stomach; it's a bad translation.
Voices: Oh, oh!
Mr. Matthew Dubé: She was very pregnant with me. There you go. But I guess somewhere a positive vibe came from that.
In all seriousness, first I want to say to you folks with Skate Canada that Ms. Mathyssen and I got to visit you in London last spring and that was just phenomenal. I think you have a great group of people and I think it's worth saying on the record. And while I'm getting things on the record,
[Translation]
including for Mr. Moss, I want to point out how pleased we were with the positive outcome in the Mathieu Giroux case, which you dealt with last year. We believe in the importance of respecting the country's diversity. A Quebecker was in a tough situation. We commend the effort and hope it's a good sign of things to come.
My questions are mainly for Mr. Thompson, of Skate Canada.
As you mentioned earlier, next year will mark your 100th anniversary. Do you plan to celebrate the achievements of your athletes at the Sochi games? Your athletes are truly wonderful individuals.
:
That's great. Thank you.
We're very excited about the upcoming 100th. I don't know if the committee is aware but the Governor General of Canada has a long history with Canadian figure skating and the Canadian championships. The first Canadian championships were created by Governor General Minto, so the Governor General has agreed to be the patron of our 100th anniversary and we will have an event at Rideau Hall on January 8 and we're very excited about that.
We're also taking this time to invite all the Canadian champions who've ever been a Canadian champion to Ottawa for the championships. We hope we're going to have up to 150 alumni at the event. We're going to have an alumni gala on the last night, and it will coincide with the Olympic team being named. It's going to be a very special moment.
We're going to have a skating program at City Hall's Rink of Dreams. We're having the Nepean Skating Club and others and Liz help teach people in attendance to skate, and we're also going to be working with some charity groups, so we're very excited about that.
We're going to have a special celebration after the games. We're looking to do a 30-city tour across Canada, going to small and medium-sized towns, and even where they don't have a club. In the far north, we're going to do clinics, and we're going to bring members of the national team with us, so it's going to be an exciting time. We're looking forward to it. And this is all part of our mission, our strategy to bring skating to Canadians. We're going to call this Canada Skates and we're going to finish it off with the celebration at the 101st Canadian championships.
We're also looking to bring our archives and our national museum on the road in a big tractor-trailer so Canadians can share in the heritage of Canadian skating.
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
[English]
Madam Manley, first, thank you very much for bringing in this medal. I think, if I'm not wrong, it's the first time I've had a medal in my hands, and for a nanosecond I imagined it was me who won it.
Voices: Oh, oh!
Hon. Stéphane Dion: It's quite moving, and thank you very much for the inspiration, for the dream, the love of sport, and the pride you give to all Canadians, and to the world, and to the sport that you are so excellent at.
Mr. Thompson, Mr. Moss, Mr. Farstad, even though you did not bring any medals with you, welcome.
I will ask the same questions that I asked the previous witnesses. First, is there something this committee can recommend to the government for Sochi in your sport, or would you say everything is ready and there is nothing further we can do?
I want to try to save a little time for Mr. Leung, so I'll try to be as quick as I can.
I've got two questions, one specifically for you, Ms. Manley-Theobald, and the other one is for each of the organizations, whoever would like to answer.
I'll start with you, Ms. Manley. As someone who comes from the Calgary area, I certainly recall very well, with very fond memories, the Olympics in 1988 that we had in Calgary, of course, and in Canmore, which is in my riding. You did really inspire a nation, and I want to make sure you hear that. I'm sure you hear it often, but you really did, and I appreciate your being here today.
Since your time as a competitive skater, you've stayed involved in the sport as a coach and otherwise, so you would be very uniquely positioned to answer the question I'd like to ask. From the time that you were competing as an athlete to now, what kind of changes have you seen in terms of support from the Government of Canada, whether it be financial or otherwise, in our support for sport?