April 3rd, 2007 | Dan Kershaw | Stingray News
2007-04-03 – Why Canadians Should Support All Amateur Athletes By: Matthew Swanston
I’m sure that a number of you sitting in this room are very familiar with the sport of hockey. Without a doubt you have all seen this exciting game in action numerous times on television. Hockey games, scores, and statistics are broadcast all over the place- on the internet, the radio and most importantly, T.V. Many Canadians go out to local sports bars and restaurants to watch “Hockey Night in Canada†on CBC, or cheer for their favourite team on TSN or Sportsnet. At times, all three of the major broadcasting stations are hosting different games, all being played at the same time. For the hardcore hockey fans, you probably look up statistics on a regular basis, and keep in touch with not only Canadian players, teams, coaches and scores, but American as well.
Now, that being said, how many people here know who Wayne Gretzky is? Of course, all of you do. What about Mats Sundin? Curtis Joseph? All of you have at least heard these names before.
Alright, now who here knows Michael Phelps? Some of you have probably heard of him before. He’s an American superstar in the sport of swimming. He has dozens of national and international titles under his belt, and currently holds 6 world records. He is best known for his performance at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece where he won 6 gold medals and 2 bronze. The World Championships were being held in Melbourne Australia just this past week, and Phelps took home another seven titles. He is on track to becoming the greatest swimmer of all time.
However, not only do the American’s have Phelps taking home medals, but they have a slew of other swimmers who follow his lead. At the World Championships, the Americans took home a total of 31 medals, 17 of which were gold. Canada, on the other hand, only ended up with a grand total of 2.
So that begs the big question. Why does Canada’s performance not even compare with that of the United States, our closest neighbour? The answer is simple; the average Canadian shows no attention and gives no recognition to any athletes other than hockey players.
That is the true reason why the Americans, as well as a number of other countries, dominate over Canada in most sports.
Now, I will outline some of the facts that make this statement true. First of all, I will talk about the similarities between Canadian and American swimming. Both countries have financial support from private sponsors as well as the federal government; there is no doubt about that. Both countries have amazing coaches, who are dedicated and passionate about what they do. They take pride in their swimmers and their purpose. Not only that, but both countries have a system that is almost entirely the same, and operates in the same manner every day. So you may ask yourself, why does the United States perform so much better than we do? Maybe there is a greater amount of talent coming from young swimmers in the U.S. You may think that it has something to do with the population. Since the Americans have such a greater population than we do, that may contribute to the fact that they are far superior to us.
But then why is it that Australia, a country with a population over 12 million less than Canada, performs so much better than we do? They have managed to raise a number of superstars right from the grassroots. Ian Thorpe is the greatest example. He owns 9 Olympic medals, and become known internationally as “The Thorpedo†for his outstanding performances, earning himself titles at major competitions such as the World Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and the Pan Pacific Games. Even a small country like Holland, which has a population over 100 times smaller than Canada, still manages to produce Olympic medalists every four years. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens Greece, Canada won no medals in swimming. Not a single medal. It was a disgrace, especially considering Holland won seven.
This brings me back to the point. Why is it that other countries perform so much better than us at the international level, in not only swimming, but any other sport as well?
The truth is that our athletes do not receive enough support, financially or spiritually. I will begin with the financial aspects.
First are the facilities. I am correct in saying that Sydney Australia is a comparable population size to Toronto. Sydney has around 48-50 Olympic sized, 50 meter swimming pools. Toronto has 2.
In order to produce great athletes, the country must have great resources. That is something that Canada lacks. The towns and cities in this country are much too concerned about ice pads and hockey rinks to give any consideration for pools, or gyms, or track fields. How can the country blame summer Olympic athletes for not performing as well as intended when they don’t give them any resources?
Here in Canada, hockey comes first on the priority list for resources. There are a great number of kids involved in hockey programs, even here in Newmarket. That is all fine and great, except the town pays little or no attention to the efforts put in by athletes in other sports fields. The town is turning a blind eye to the fact that here in Newmarket, we are producing potential world class swimmers.
My friend and I traveled to Victoria, British Columbia a few weeks ago to compete at the Senior National Swimming Championships. That means that we were racing men who were mostly between the ages of 18-24, many of whom were six and half feet tall. This competition also included past and present Olympians. Despite these facts, we both placed in the top eight for our best events, beating people from across the country. In fact, the time I did to come seventh in the 200 backstroke is actually one of the fastest times in the world for my age.
Yet when we returned home and scanned through the Era Banner, there was no mention of our accomplishments. I suppose a top eight finish at nationals is not worthy to mention, while I could plainly see in the newspaper that “Timbit A†team beat “Timbit B†team.
I know from personal experience that it is tough being an elite athlete when your country doesn’t appear to support you.
Getting back to the point, even though there are high performance athletes coming from Newmarket, the town is doing nothing to help. If I was living in Australia, I would without a doubt be training in a facility containing two 50 meter pools, with a set of stands that could fit thousands of spectators. Here in Newmarket, I train in the Ray Twinney Complex where we can hardly get enough pool time to keep fit. Time allotted for swimming lessons is more important than time allotted for my team. Not only does the town not care, but it seems they want to impede our progress.
Two years ago, we were opting for a 50 meter pool to be built here in Newmarket. I myself and a great number of swimmers from my team attended a large number of town council meetings to support our cause. We asked questions, gave input, and showed we really cared about what we were fighting for. However, the town councilors still came up with some crazy idea that more swimming lessons and other activities could be done in a 25 meter pool, than a 50 meter pool. Let’s think about this logically for a second. 50 meters is double 25 meters. Therefore there would be double the pool time. Apparently common sense isn’t very common for leaders in politics. So, we lost the fight and instead the town decided to put in more ice pads. What a joy.
Not only do the towns not support our athletes, but the universities do not either. Canadian university coaches work hard with a small budget to try and make it the best experience possible for those swimmers who choose to attend a Canadian university. However, a great number of future top swimmers in Canada still head off to the U.S. after they graduate from high school. Why? Well, it is very obvious. The attraction of a full scholarship at a university in the states, as well as competing in the NCAA is enough to do it. While many want to stay loyal to Canada and represent their home country on the world stage, it is tough not to move. Coaches from American universities have budgets that allow them to ship swimmers down south for recruiting trips (as well as potentially offering them full scholarships). This means that usually Canadian swimmers are made offers that they can’t refuse. Sometimes coaches will even show up at your front door with incredible offers that are near impossible to pass up.
I shouldn’t say that Canada doesn’t try, however. There are limited offers such as minor scholarships and carding money, but that doesn’t even come close to comparing with receiving a full paid scholarship to an American university.
Quite often, swimmers are not given enough financial support here in Canada to reach their full potential, or even to motivate them enough to succeed. An example of a country supporting their athletes is Singapore. Li Tao, a 16 year old from Singapore, was given $250 000 for winning the Asian games in swimming. A quarter of a million dollars, and she is only 16! This really shows the amount of support that is needed for our athletes if we want to try and compete against the best in the world.
Now that I have finished talking about the financial aspects, I will move into the deeper reasons why other countries are more powerful than us.
A few days ago, on T.V., I watched an experiment done on CBC. There were news reporters going around on the street asking random people questions. One of the questions was, “Can you name 3 Summer Olympic athletes from any time period?†Most of them responded no, that they couldn’t. Many of them said that they could name national hockey players, however. This just goes to show that most Canadians only care about hockey and not any other sports. Another question was, “Can you tell me what year and where the next Summer Olympic Games are?†Most answered, “I don’t know.†Finally, the last question was, “Do you think that more funding should go towards the Winter Olympics or the Summer Olympics?†A good chunk answered that they thought the Winter Olympics should get more funding just because “we’re more of a winter nation.†How is it fair that Winter Olympic athletes should get paid more and get more resources when Summer Olympic athletes work just as hard, year round. This is the reason why we as Canadians get dominated by countries that are half the size of Toronto. There should be no favourites, or differentiating between different sports. I know for a fact that in the U.S., they care about all sports equally. If I were to ask any one of you which sport you think the U.S. is best at, you probably wouldn’t be able to come up with an answer. This is because the U.S. dominates in everything. They put an incredible amount of time, effort, and funding into all sports equally. Success and domination over countries is something that the Americans thrive for.
It seems that here in Canada, we really only care how our hockey teams do. And the truth is, considering the fact that hockey players get so much support nationally, they aren’t doing that spectacularly. The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t even make the playoffs, and look at how much support they get. At the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, the Canadian Men’s team only placed seventh. For most Canadians, if our hockey teams don’t do so great, they’ll just say, “Maybe next time.†It’s like the only sport that matters to our country is hockey. I don’t know about you, but to me, this makes no sense at all. If we can’t even live up to our reputation of being “a hockey nation†then why are we still “a hockey nation?â€
Big corporations like Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire pour money into hockey organizations, so that Hockey Canada can ensure that we develop hockey players from the grassroots level. But it is sad to say that even with all the funding and support hockey gets, we still get beaten. It’s like we are attempting to take down the U.S. in hockey, so we pour everything we have into that sport so that we can beat them. And then we can hardly beat them in hockey, the sport that we are nationally acclaimed for being so good at. And then the U.S. dominates over us in every other sport anyways.
None of this seems to make sense to me. Obviously there is a big problem that needs to be addressed. I strongly believe that we should distribute money, attention, and contributions to each sport equally, and not pick any favourites. Because right now, everyone other than hockey players feels like nobody cares about them. They don’t get any attention or recognition for their achievements. That makes it very tough to perform well, when you feel like your country isn’t backing you up.
Another factor is the media. If the media only reports on hockey and only shows an interest in hockey, how can athletes from any other sport feel proud of themselves? In the Unites States, the media shows coverage of all sports, and that is what gives their athletes a much greater boost.
Going back to what I said at the beginning of my speech, who here has heard of Brent Hayden? Mike Brown? Brittany Reimer? These are some of Canada’s top swimmers at this point in time. However, since there is no media coverage about them, and nobody knows who they are (unless they’re involved in the swimming world) they really have no motivation. If everybody in Canada knew who they were and supported them, they could do great things for our country.
These are some of the reasons why Canadians should support all amateur athletes equally. If all sports got an equal amount of encouragement from our country, we would perform better in many more areas. It is up to the towns to realize that non-hockey players are not the enemies. We are all trying to work together to make Canada a stronger country on the world stage. Just because we are “a hockey nation†doesn’t mean that we aren’t allowed to be good in any other sports.
This is why the Americans are so much more superior to us. It is also why smaller countries still manage to clobber us in competitions. All Canadians need to make more of an effort in getting informed about other sports, and start paying attention to more than just hockey.
Maybe if this could actually happen, Canada would be able to step it up at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and all competitions to follow.
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