Own the Podium Or Rent It? Canada's Involvement in The
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OWN THE PODIUM OR RENT IT? CANADA’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE GLOBAL SPORTING ARMS RACE Peter Donnelly Canada has never won a gold medal at the Olympics it has hosted — in Montreal in 1976 and in Calgary in 1988 — but that is expected to change in Vancouver in February, partly because of a $110-million investment in the Own the Podium program over the last five years. But Peter Donnelly, director of the Centre for Sports Policy Studies at University of Toronto, suggests there is a downside to a narrow focus on winning, including the creation of two classes of athletes — the elites and the others, not to mention a very un-Canadian attitude about bragging rights. Among other things, the bar of expectations is being set very high. Le Canada n’a remporté aucune médaille d’or lors des Jeux olympiques qu’il a accueillis à Montréal en 1976, puis à Calgary en 1988. Une situation qui devrait changer à Vancouver, en partie grâce aux 110 millions de dollars investis depuis cinq ans dans le programme À nous le podium 2010. Mais selon Peter Donnelly, directeur des politiques sportives à l’Université de Toronto, cette focalisation sur la victoire pourrait notamment avoir pour effet négatif de créer deux catégories d’athlètes : ceux de l’élite et tous les autres. Sans parler d’une attitude crâneuse fort peu canadienne. Chose certaine, on a haussé très haut les barres des attentes. n February a Canadian athlete will probably, for the he new qualifying standards emerged as governments first time, win an Olympic gold medal on Canadian soil T and sport leaders began to fetishize “‘the medal,” espe- I — an event that will be widely and justifiably celebrat- cially “the gold medal.” Under a growing climate of busi- ed. Failure to win gold medals in Montreal (1976) or Calgary nesslike government in Canada and other countries, of (1988) marks Canada as the only country never to have won objective-led management, performance measures, account- a gold medal when hosting an Olympics. ability, monitoring and evaluation, investments in high- Canadians have won plenty of Olympic gold medals in performance sport came to be seen as having only one other countries, and failure to win gold medals in Montreal measurable objective: medals. or Calgary was not a concern for most Canadians. In gener- Critical comparisons of Canada’s Olympic medal totals al, Canadians approved of an implicit social contract with with those of Australia, the US or some European countries Olympic athletes: “We don’t give you lots of money, but if began to contribute to a sense that Canada does not do very you achieve Olympic qualifying standards we will send you well at the Olympics. This was especially the case in 2000, to the Games.” Under that contract, Canada achieved during the Sydney Olympics. Australia, a country with remarkable results at the Olympics, at a cost per medal far many similarities to Canada and a smaller population, did lower than for many other nations. particularly well at its home Olympics, and many in the In 2004, the Canadian Olympic Committee unilaterally Canadian sport community pointed to the high levels of changed that contract. A number of young Canadian athletes government funding enjoyed by Australian athletes. who had achieved Olympic qualifying standards and were look- In some ways the comparison with Australia and the ing forward to their dream of going to the Games in Athens were focus on only the summer Olympics was unfair. Unlike denied their places on the team. The COC had increased the Australia, Canada is a multi-sport nation, sending full teams qualifying standards following a decision to send only athletes to both summer and winter Olympics. A more accurate com- who were believed to have a chance of winning a medal. parison of Canada’s Olympic success emerges using the com- POLICY OPTIONS 41 DECEMBER 2009-JANUARY 2010 Peter Donnelly bined medal totals, from both summer (2002) and Chinese success in Beijing of the 58 medals Australia won in and winter Games, during each four- (2008) may all be related to this home- Sydney cost C$4.82 million; the sec- year Olympiad. Canadian athletes do team advantage. ond divided the total reported cost of well at the Olympics, but Australian But these factors do not explain hosting the Olympics by the number athletes have been doing better: why Australian athletes have consis- of gold medals won, estimating the tently outpaced Canadian athletes in cost of each gold medal at A$40 mil- Total medals medal performance since 1992. In addi- lion. Finally, two recent calculations of Winter and summer tion to population, GDP and the host- the cost of Australian medals at the Olympics Australia Canada ing advantage, it is now apparent from Beijing Olympics achieved similar 1988 14 15 a European comparative study that the results. The first study estimated that 1992 27 25 best predictor of success in winning Australia’s 14 gold medals each cost 1994/96 42 35 1998/00 59 29 medals is the absolute amount of fund- A$15.6 million. The recently pub- 2002/04 51 29 ing allocated to high-performance lished Crawford Report considered 2006/08 48 42 sport. The nations that have invested only Australian government spending the most in high-performance sport on Olympic sports in the four years ecent newspaper reports in achieve the best results. leading up to Beijing, and estimated R Canada cite a prediction from an that each medal cost A$4 million, and “Olympic guru,” Luciano Barra, that iven the evidence that more each gold medal cost A$15 million. Canadian athletes will win the most G money leads to more Olympic In Britain, the National Audit medals in Vancouver (29). The art and medals, what do they cost? The few fig- Office reported that each medal won by science of “medal projections” has ures that are available vary widely in British athletes at the Athens Olympics grown out of some 40 years of academ- how they were calculated and signifi- (2004) cost the British government £2.4 ic research attempting to understand cantly underestimate the true cost million. And an estimate of the most why athletes from certain countries because they measure only national expensive medals ever was reported for win so many medals and, conversely, government spending. Not included is China, which spent US$3 billion on why athletes from certain countries funding from provincial/state and high-performance sport in the four win so few medals. municipal sources, corporate/sponsor- years leading up to the Athens Correlations with medal success ship funding, free labour provided by Olympics — its 32 gold medals each have been found with, for example, sport volunteers, various forms of costing some US$100 million. religion (athletes from Protestant fundraising or even the costs borne by In two calculations for Canada, one countries win more medals), political athletes and their families. divided the total reported cost of the ideology (accounting for the success of Given these limitations, conclu- 1976 Olympics by the number of medals athletes from the former socialist sions about the cost of medals are won, estimating that each medal won by countries), population size (with some problematic. However, it is important a Canadian athlete in Montreal cost obvious exceptions such as India) and to have some sense of the cost per C$37 million. The other study estimates GDP (with some obvious exceptions medal in order to have any meaningful that each medal won by a Canadian ath- such as Cuba). More recent research Under a growing climate of businesslike government in indicates that the best pre- Canada and other countries, of objective-led management, dictive models combine the last two factors. Success is performance measures, accountability, monitoring and proportional to population evaluation, investments in high-performance sport came to — the higher the popula- be seen as having only one measurable objective — medals. tion of a country, the more medals are won; and the richer a coun- high-performance sport policy. lete at the Sydney Olympics cost the fed- try (as measured by GDP), the more Australian studies have provided the eral government C$4.42 million. Craig medals are won — richer countries most data on medal costs, and their Mitton, at the University of British with large populations (e.g., the US, estimates vary widely. For example, in Columbia at Okanagan, stated that “on a China, Germany) win the most the period before the Sydney Olympics per capita basis, Australia spent over medals. Hosting an Olympics also has one study suggests that each gold seven times more on its Sydney Olympic an effect, accounting for approximate- medal cost Australians A$37 million. team than Canada, to win four times as ly 2 percent more of the medals than (or about A$8 million for each medal many medals.” would be predicted by population and in general). In two studies of the cost Regardless of how they were calcu- GDP. Australian success in Sydney of Australian medals at the Sydney lated, two things are evident from (2000), US success in Salt Lake City Olympics, the first estimated that each these figures. First, it costs a great deal 42 OPTIONS POLITIQUES DÉCEMBRE 2009-JANVIER 2010 Own the Podium or rent it? Canada’s involvement in the global sporting arms race CP Photo The Canadian women’s hockey team celebrating their gold medal victory at the Torino Games in 2006. Canadian athletes are under tremendous pressure, as part of the Own the Podium program, to win medals, especially gold ones, at Vancouver. of money to win an Olympic medal, tions, while countries such as Jamaica countries such as Canada and Britain.