Olympic sports to get $6million boost from federal government

Canadian Press

tsn.ca

A $6-million boost from the federal government is aimed at changing Canada's history of poor performances in team sports at the Summer Olympics.

Basketball, volleyball, field hockey, water polo and recent Games addition rugby sevens will benefit from the new funding, part of a five-year commitment confirmed Tuesday by Minister of State Gary Lunn during the Team Sport Summit in Ottawa.

The money is drawn from the larger $61-million commitment to amateur summer sports announced as part of the 2010 federal budget, and is over and above the $64 million the government provides to the Own The Podium program.

Sport Canada will administer the money, dividing it up based on the guidance of OTP officials, who will base their decisions on teams' performance and their future chances of success.

"We've got a number of team sports that have not made it into that next level," Lunn said in an interview from Ottawa. "They've come in to see us and we want to be able to support them as well. We're putting that money into Own The Podium to ensure that they can invest in the best teams, the right places, and the right amounts."

The additional funding is a boon for the five programs, which have combined to win one Olympic medal -- a silver claimed by the men's basketball team back in 1936.

Both the men's and women's basketball teams are facing tough odds to qualify for the 2012 Games in London, but the extra funding will allow Canada Basketball to build on promising youth programs that may pay dividends at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Canada does have one volleyball medal -- a bronze won by beach duo John Child and Mark Heese in 1996 -- but the traditional teams are still looking for their first trip up the podium, as are the field hockey and water polo squads.

Rugby sevens makes its Olympic debut in 2016, and the Canadians will be looking to come out of the gate strong. Rugby Canada CEO Graham Brown said his organization is getting just under $500,000 in the first year, a good starting point toward that end.

"What it's saying to me is that there is funding that will be allocated to allow you to begin the process of building the program to be at an Olympic standard," said Brown.

"We feel we've got the right high-performance coaching in place, with support from this money that has been allocated, and now we feel we can focus on providing our athletes with the best opportunities starting in 2011 through the qualification which will conclude in 2015."

The amount each organization gets in each of the five years will vary depending on how much progress each makes or does not make in the eyes of Own The Podium officials.

Securing the money from the larger $61-million allocation to the Sport Support Program, which goes to the 44 national summer sports organizations, has been in the works since last fall. Lunn has been lobbied by a coalition of team sports seeking additional support, an idea he eventually came to embrace.

"We've got funding for the Special Olympics in the budget, we've got funding for Own The Podium, we've got funding for the Canadian Paralympic Committee, and now we've got funding for team sports," he said. "I believe in all of them, and we were very fortunate to be so successful for all of these endeavours in such a tight budget."

Brown said the funding infusion represents about five per cent of Rugby Canada's total budget and will be spent on completing internal restructuring, enhancing existing programs and on getting his sevens teams to more games.

A focus will be on the women's side, which has received far less support than the men's team due to the way much of its sponsorship money has been targeted. The women's team will now be sent to take part in the Hong Kong Sevens tournament next February or March.

Brown also insisted the traditional version of rugby will not be neglected to support sevens.

"Two-thirds of that money is focused on developing a better structure for women's rugby and enhancing the women's rugby platform," he said. "We look at rugby as a combined sport, we don't believe you can develop sevens without 15s, but the reality is you need to have more sevens tournaments to give the athletes a better opportunity.

"Part of this money has allowed us to enhance our competition structure."