Aths Canada support change

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Athletics Canada making it more difficult to go the distance

April 12, 2010
John Marsden
Going the Distance

In running, it is a long road to Olympic success. The governing body of our sport, Athletics Canada, is going to change the way that it supports runners. These changes will leave runners abandoned at a critical stage in their development.

It takes a decade to reach your full potential as a runner. High schools do a good job of introducing runners to the sport. Some universities work hard at developing runners, but they are limited to four years. After this there is a huge gap.

Graduation is the greatest barrier in the lives of runners. These are bright, ambitious people. To continue to train, they must put their careers on hold. They need to train four hours or more a day, and be able to travel to international competitions. It can be difficult to find even part-time work that allows this.

To help, there is a system called carding from Sports Canada.

This is a subsidy for developing athletes at $900 a month. You need to achieve internationally competitive times to qualify. It is not a lot of money but something to help you devote more time to your sport.

Now Athletics Canada has changed the qualifying standards making it easier to qualify as an 18-year-old, harder as a 23-year-old, and harder again as a 28-year-old.

Our local Speed River Track and Field Club has more than 15 athletes aiming at the 2012 Olympics. Five of them are carded but, under the new rules, four of them will lose their carding. All are post-collegiate athletes. The depth of talent in the Speed River group is so deep that another four much younger athletes will qualify for carding.

The impact of these changes will be greatest on those who have just graduated and must make the decision to continue their training or get on with their regular lives. The difficulty of getting carded will be a major factor in their decision. Athletics Canada has abandoned this generation of athletes.

Athletics Canada has refused to explain the rationale for this change, but the idea seems to be that the only predictor of an Olympic medal is early success. This is a bureaucratic attempt to produce the maximum results with the minimum money. The real world is an unpredictable place, and no one knows who will rise to the top.

In some sports, like gymnastics, athletes peak early. This is not true of distance running. Canada’s top mile runner is in his mid-30s as are the last two world marathon record holders. The United States 5,000-metre record holder is 28 years old.

Rob Watson, Dana Buchanan, Chris Winter, Reid Coolsaet, Rachel Cliff, Alex Genest, Hilary Stellingwerff and Tim Konoval are all athletes that are competitive at an international level but are currently unfunded. This is not the way to build Olympic success.

Abandonment by Athletics Canada is unlikely to deter them. These athletes have achieved their current success through discipline and character. This is neither the first nor the last barrier they will overcome on their path to success.

You can help. Come out and run with us in the Billy Taylor Road Race this Sunday. The Speed River athletes will be out in their usual role as volunteers to help you. Visit the website www.GuelphVictors.ca for details.

John Marsden is a local runner. His column appears every other Tuesday. He can be reached by email at john@tenda.ca

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Very simple equation. Not enough money for everyone means that the Athletics Canada bureaucrats re-write the requirements for carding and qualifying for a national team so that it is too difficult to qualify for funding.

Less athletes get funding and less athletes qualify for major competitions, but the amount of Athletics Canada coaching and managerial staff increases.

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And the “role” of some makes one wonder. How can an individual hired to assess and recruit talent for training groups not show up at the meets where they perform. Looking at a results sheet doesn’t tell you how results were obtained and if technique improvements would be quickly forthcoming. No wonder that after a year not one athlete has ben identified and referred to said groups. It takes a hell of a lt to walk beneath even my meagre expectations of AC but they’ve managed to do it.

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Exactly. I have 3-4 college football players who could easily run under 10.50 with some good training and support. How would they be identified by someone going through results and rankings of track athletes? Never.

If Athletics Canada was actually supporting talent, I would suggest that these guys run track. But at least if they go into the Canadian Football League, they have a chance to make at least a minimum of $45,000 per year. It would be irresponsible to direct these guys into the sport of track and field in Canada.