COC invests $37 million over next four years into high-performance sport via OTP

TORONTO — The Canadian Olympic Committee said Thursday it is renewing its commitment to high-performance sport by investing $37 million in funding over the next four years through the Own The Podium program.

The funding amount is consistent with the amount the COC invested in the previous quadrennial. COC chief executive officer Chris Overholt made the announcement during a speech to the Empire Club of Canada.

Canada won 22 medals last summer at the Rio Olympics: four gold, three silver and 15 bronze.

“We’ve made some investments along the way and as we heard today and as we’ve seen first-hand in Rio, those investments are working,” Overholt said. “But the competitive landscape just continues to go up so we’ve got to keep our focus on maximizing our investment in sport.”

The COC also announced it will commit $16 million in new funding for the growth and development of the next generation of Olympians, an amount that will be matched by the federal government.

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As part of the new model, the COC will invest $5 million into a new coaching enhancement program and another $5 million to strengthen the capacity and resources of the country’s national sport federations.

“This coaching enhancement program actually provides us with an avenue to keep coaches in Canada, build them, recruit new ones into Canada and then keep them in the system,” said Coaching Association of Canada CEO Lorraine Lafreniere.

Also included in the new funding plans are $1 million for Game Plan, a program designed to ease the athletes’ transition into the workforce after they retire from competition, and $2 million for the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network. 

Overholt also called on the federal government to take a fresh look at the current Athlete Assistance Program. It’s designed to relieve some of the financial pressures that high-performance athletes face as a result of their commitment to sport.

He has asked Ottawa to “closely examine” how it is supporting carded athletes, noting that the program has not been adjusted for inflation in 11 years. A message left with Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough was not immediately returned.

Overholt also announced that the COC had recently streamlined its organizational structure and workforce plan.

“We made some decisions yesterday with our staff,” Overholt said. “Our work plan was rolled out yesterday and that involved us terminating a couple of employees in the name of restructuring and in the name of focusing on our strategy, which again, is all centred around maximizing our investment in sport.” 

Specifics on the job cuts weren’t released.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Tokyo will host the next Summer Games in 2020.

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press