The Canadian way to Olympic excellence (National Post, August 25, 2004)

As the Summer Olympics unfold in generally disappointing fashion, many Canadian hands are being wrung over the meagre funding of our athletes. But elite athletes are trees in a sports program forest, and it is the forest that merits public discussion.

Medals are like flowers: They are more beautiful in bunches than singly. You can obtain flowers the fast and easy way -- annuals -- or grow perennials from seed and enjoy the increasingly luxuriant blooms in perpetuity. Is there a Canadian compromise between helping the few get medals and the many get healthy, fit and receptive to a culture that values athleticism? Yes, but it will take time before the medals start to flow. When they do, their winners will be the best of a bigger, more competitive crop.

The compromise, then, is to stop concentrating on "made" elites -- let private sponsors look after them, as in the United States, where corporations spend over US$100-million on athletes -- and let public funds create a deeper and wider pool of future performers by seeding a culture of athleticism from earliest childhood forward. After a generation has moved through this culture, medals will spring organically from the best of the best that rises to its top.

Between 1992 and 1998, there was a major drop-off in sports involvement amongst Canadians of all ages. From a policy perspective (and considering the skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease) Canada would benefit most from youth sport programs that create their own momentum. We should look to our medals future in games and disciplines that are fitness-promoting, universally accessible and popular throughout all socio-economic strata.

Istvan Balyi, a well-known sports consultant, teaches that if a child has not developed neuromuscular pathways before a critical stage in development -- pre-puberty -- he or she will never throw, catch, jump, or balance with natural fluency, or, in short, reach the level of comfort necessary to integrate sport into a lifestyle. Also critical, Balyi says, is that children "play" in as many generalized activities as possible and only specialize after puberty (except for a few early specialization sports such as gymnastics and figure skating, which depend on not going through puberty).

To encourage more athletic "literacy" in first youth, elementary and then high schools must become government's partners with expanded, well-funded, standardized programs and paid, certified (i.e., professional, not volunteer) coaches. Elite-level training should be linked to universities, where there are facilities in place and an established infrastructure of knowledge and ongoing research.

But resources and training for a growing mass of athletes is only half the equation. Our national attitude to amateur sport is the other half. Johanne Begin of our women's Water Polo Team scored three goals in a victory against the U.S. team last week. Interestingly, Begin trains in Italy where Water Polo attracts huge spectatorship all the time. Coincidence -- or the benefits of frequent competitions in a supportive culture? Ian Thorpe is mobbed wherever he goes in Australia, while Johanne Begin will return to a life of anonymity in Canada.

Australia has taken decisions and created institutions we would do well to imitate. For example, as part of a government initiative to reduce obesity among the country's youth, the Australian Sports Commission will be spending $90-million over the next four years on a campaign to encourage kids to take part in physical activity.

Then there is the Australian Institute for Sport (visit this amazing campus at www.ais.org.au), which offers an excellent model for a bringing resources and athletes together. It is through the AIS that Australia went from Olympic rags in 1976 to riches today. Ironically, the driving force behind the AIS was Canadian swim coach Don Talbot, fired in 1998 for his "too aggressive" emphasis on medals.

In the end, medals accumulate according to strategies that reflect the values and the character of the individual country. Since we are so pleased to vaunt our national characteristics of prudence, commitment to universalism and patience in other theatres of life, we should apply them in good faith to sports, and earn medals the Canadian way. Let us cultivate our garden. The race is not always to the swift, eh?

© National Post 2004