The Canadian Olympic Team

I am not sure this is the topic I wanted for my first post to this blog - but I need to start with something and this is really bothering me right now.

If you will allow it I would like to share my opinion on the state of our Olympic team. In a word, the team is "terrible".

As you begin to scream at me about how you did not allow me to share my opinion and you are thinking how can I say that about this group of athletes and it really is amazing just to make it (to qualify) for the level required at the Olympics let me ask you to pause and hear me out. My opinion about the team has nothing to do with any specific athlete (or their coach) or the colection of accomplishments that each athlete and the collective group of athletes has obtained. In fact, as a former coach and a proud Canadian I am extremely pleased, impressed, and honoured by all of our Olympic athletes. Every single one of them is doing the best they can with the resources they have been given to represent Canada and for that they need to feel proud and good about themselves. My problem is with the system - the way we encourage young Canadians to "enjoy" sport, presenting them with a diverse set of experiences and identify clusters of talent and nurture that talent through fun, rewarding and challenging opportunities. That last sentence was sarcasm.

Not only do we not model ourselves after any country with any level of success greater than our own, we refuse to make sport development a priority at any level. From your local community association up to the PSO and NSO's we are too concerned with individual athletes, often the children of the rich or the "squeeky wheel", who have some level of talent, and how we can give them opportunities to "play". Our sport programs are marred by sports that "over-train", "over-game", and "under-perform". There is a great interview of Alex Baumann in a recent issue of Maclean's magazine (http://www.macleans.ca/culture/sports/article.jsp?content=20080806_83881_83881) where Baumann describes four keys for improving our Olympic team:

A: That's right. My focus is really on four things. The technical leadership is probably the most important thing, ensuring we have the best coaches to run the program. Training in competition is critical as well: providing athletes and coaches all the opportunities. Then, as you mention, the whole issue of injury management and prevention. Enhancing quality support services would be the third aspect. Obviously we're pushing our athletes more and more and we need to ensure that we have injury management and injury prevention strategies, and ensure support services like sports sciences and physiology, psychology and biomechanics are there as well. That's what the leading nations are doing. The fourth thing in terms of focus needs to be increasing the organizational capacity of national sporting organizations.

Four great points but he is missing in my opinion the most important - (really two points tied together) - young athlete opportunites with talent identification. We need to encourage the masses to try out and be exposed to a wide variety of sports and give them quality instruction (coaching) that presents the sport in a fun and engaging manner. Then sit back and watch for the two athletes characteristics needed at that level - enjoyment and any natural talent.

Our athletes and coaches are truly amazing and are doing amazing things. For us to send more medals home we need to foster an environment of enjoyment and diversity - giving kids the chance to play.

My 2 cents.