Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Weighing in on 'Own the Podium'

Own the Podium has been getting a lot of flack in the media for creating an unsportsmanlike environment for athletes and for creating an unattainable goal for Canadian athletes in the Winter Olympics. I think Canada made two mistakes with this initiative. The name and the goal.

First, they never should have called it 'Own the Podium'. The overt goal of this program was always for Canadian athletes to get a better showing in the medal standings, but the covert goal was to acquire something Canadian sport had been severely lacking for decades - proper funding. The program saw an increase in funding of $118 million. The good thing to come out of this is that athletes finally got some of the resources they deserve to help them be included among the world's best athletes.

The bad thing to come out of this program was the setting of an egotistical, immodest goal regarding the number of medals that must be achieved in order for the program to be qualified as a success. We even saw examples of the effect of these expectations, where athletes devolved into a sobbing puddle of low self-esteem after only placing 4th or 5th in an event. Come on! Placing 4th may not win you a medal, but it still beats the crap out of the dozens of competitors you competed against and that counts for a lot.

In the end, 'Own the Podium' did increase the calibre and results of our best athletes, but because of how it was implemented, all it did was put a bitter taste in the mouths of a great many people and worse, made it look like increased funding was a waste of money - which it was not. I hope the funding continues to increase and our athletes are given the support they deserve, because they are world class. We used to be a modest nation that took pride in the achievements we could muster. I want that back.

1 comment:

Bernie May said...

So what's the solution - long-term investment across a broad spectrum of athletic endeavours, programs, people, and places, instead of short-term political glory-hounding meant to cover up years of budget neglect? You're going to have to fix the Canadian governmental culture first I'm afraid. A Herculean task.