I can remember the not so good old days when Canadians at the Olympics were sitting ducks. Underfunded, and undertrained, our amateur athletes had to compete with:
- Americans finely tuned through a competitive, scholarship supported, college sports system.
- Athletes from countries where Olympic sports like wrestling, soccer or track and field actually matter.
- Salaried pseudo amateurs from eastern block countries.
- Unnaturally muscled, gender morphing, machine like monstrosities from the same eastern block rivals.
Canada was the only country to host an Olympics but not win a gold medal. We did this not once, but twice at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, and at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. Sure, there were many well deserved silver and bronze medals. At many other Olympics, water sports like swimming and snow and ice sports provided their share of medals. Occassionally, there would be the spectacular results of a Nancy Greene, a Caroline Waldo or a Donovan Bailey. However, we were never dominant to the degree that one would expect from a nation of our wealth and resources. There was also the fact that many of the Olympic sports had little fan base or support in Canada.
In 2016 I wrote a post called "Does Canada Own the Podium?" The following is an excerpt from that.
"Own the Podium would change all of that! Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Vancouver Organizing Committee gathered for a brainstorming session in 2004. A decision was made to have Sport Canada, the C.O.C. and the Canadian Paralympic Committee pool their funding. This funding was to be used to select potential medal winners from the various national sporting organizations and direct.the resources towards them. Future forecast was predicted by:
- Past Performance
- Future potential in the view of coaches and sports coordinators
- Analytics - the analysis of statistics made famous in baseball and the movie 'Moneyball'
- Sports with potential for most medals
- Sports with multiple events like speed skating (long and short track), skiing (alpine and freestyle), swimming and rowing plus track and field can yield more medals
- Team sports like field hockey can yield only one medal per team per gender
- Sports with weight classes such as wrestling can also be fruitful
- A weight class sport such as Olympic Weightlifting is a fringe sport in Canada whereas in Europe, the Balkans, Asia and the Mideast it is almost as popular as soccer. The potential for medals is likely low for Canadian competitors.
- Sports associations such as Wrestling Canada had the foresight to invest heavily in the women's program and reap a future medal harvest."
Own the Podium and the Road to Excellence were mandated to funnel financial support to elite athltes and sports with medal potential. It worked! Canadian athletes at the 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 Winter Olymics were in the mix with the traditional powerhouse countries. In Vancouver 2010, Canada broke its Gold Medal drought as a host nation and won the most gold medals.. Summer Olympic athletes from Canada began winning medals on a more regular basis.
Then the milk of success began to turn sour. Disturbing stories began to emerge from different sports with similar complaints such as:
- Bullying, abrasive coaches
- Verbal harassment of athletes
- Promotion of eating disorders
- Fat shaming
- Sexual harassment and assault
- Sexual misconduct
- Perormance prioritized over the physical and mental well being of athletes
Disturbing stories began to emerge as a sideline to the athletic success.
The morale erosion began to make news headlines in recent years.
- Bobsled Canada Skeleton athletes en masse demanded that the CEO and staff of that sporting body all resign for constantly disregarding athlete complaints or 'sweeping them under the carpet.'.
- Some prominant track and field coaches received lifetime bans for sexual misconduct.
- In gymnastics a husband and wife coaching tandem also received a lifetime for psychological abuse tacics such as 'fat shaming' enforced dietary restriction..
- A former national team gymnastics coach was sentenced to prison for multiple counts of sexual assault .
- The Alpine Canada sporting body was accused of muzzling whistle blowing athletes.
- Soccer, artistic swimming, and other sports have had reports of a toxic environment at the developmental levels.
- Wrestling Canada contracted a lawyer to investigate the sport. The lawyer concluded that this sport cultivated 'a culture of drinking' within the coaching ranks. Gadzooks! Maybe I remember some of it through the alcoholic haze.)
A sport as pure as amateur wrestling with a
'culture of drinking'within its coachng ranks?
Nonsense!
*&^!% Bobby! You are a disgrace as a wrestler!"
The most recent scandal just hit the news waves last week. Hockey Canada tried to keep hidden a settlement payment to a woman claiming that she was sexually assaulted by at least 8 members of the 2018 Men's Junior Hockey team. Sport Canada is not pleased by the lack of transparency or any hint of a cover up. Sport Canada also wants to know if government funding was used as part of the settlement.
Despite the success of women's hockey, the enclosed ice fields are rumored to be rife with toxic masculinity. Until Sport Canada finds out the full situation, no more federal government funding will be given out to Hockey Canada. Corporate sponsors such as Tim Horton's and Canadian Tire are also freezing their financial donations.
****Now more allegations are hitting the news about another gang rape by members of the Canadian junior hockey team in Halifax at the 2003 World Junior Championships! Not good!
- Results were placed at utmost importance.
- The sporting bodies scoring the most medals got the most money.
- The most successful coaches were rewarded despite any possible behavioral flaws.
- Many of these behavioral issues were overlooked or covered up by sport administrations to keep the money flowing from government agencies and corporate sponsors.
- Once enough athletes feel abused or bullied the code of silence starts to crack.
- It should be noted that false accusations are not rare. Disgruntled athletes can make up stories out of spite.
- A wrongful allegation can ruin the reputation of an innocent coach or support staff member and even lead to job loss!
- We also live in a new era of 'woke' cancel culture in which 'tough love' style coaching and/or irreverent humor (like mine) is often no longer considered appropriate.
Canada is not alone in this. A number of former women U.S.A. gymnasts are suing the FBI for inaction and insufficient investigation of a sexually abusive team doctor.The Russian Sports Federation has been systematically doping their athletes for years, even underage figure skaters..
What are the possible remedies to these issues?
- Canadian Sport Administrations have to discontinue internal investigations of serious complaints.
- Third party legal investigative groups have to become the norm.
- More thorough screening of coaches, trainers, and staff is needed to try and weed out bullies and sexual predators.
- More women coaches for women athletes might reduce a historical temptation going back to the Biblical days of King David and Bathsheba and beyond!
- It might be time to focus less on the medal count and more on the developmental heath of the participants.
I don't know how or if these issues will be resolved. Hopefully they can. I don't miss the sparse medal days of Canadian sport.
Keep Fit
Little Bobby Strong
