GLOBE & MAIL, CANADA
James Christie
Toronto — Globe and Mail Update Published on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 7:14PM EDT
“There’s more money than there ever has been in Olympic sport, and still there’s never enough,” said Canadian hurdling record holder Adam Kunkel, as 190 athletes got $6,000 cheques Tuesday to help them with expenses in their bids to make the team for the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
A million-dollar handout to Summer Olympic hopefuls Tuesday came from the Canadian Athletes Now Fund – a privately financed program operated for 14 years by executive director Jane Roos. A former heptathlete until a car accident, Roos has run a program that put $12-million directly into the hands of athletes to cover expenses as they need. They owe her no paperwork. They can cover bills, pay coaches, buy groceries, and get some ease from financial pressures.
“What I want is for Canadians to get behind athletes before they win the medals,” said Roos. She said 80 per cent of the Vancouver Canadian Olympic winter team – 35 of them medalists – had used her fund and she hoped to help as much as 95 per cent of the London squad. She’s still raising money for 196 athletes on the waiting list.
“What [$6,000] means for Canadian athletes is some independence, so they can focus on training, and not worry for a while how the bills get paid, or how to eat healthy and cheaply,” Roos said.
It’s not a government stipend and Roos has no blessing from the Canadian Olympic Committee – in fact the COC has tried with court actions to stop her, arguing that her fund-raising activities cramped their own efforts.
The CAN fund comprises private and corporate donations, such as the $1.4-million given by Sprott Asset Management – $100,000 for each of the 14 golds Canada won at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The Canadian women’s hockey team assigned their $100,000 cheque to help 16 athletes in the next Olympic wave.
“This money makes a difference,” said Jennifer Botterill, a former recipient who has won three Olympic golds and a silver with the hockey team. “The fund is here, like a friend, every step of the way from the exhausting training camps to the Games.”
Botterill learned the identities of the 16 athletes being helped by the hockey women’s grant. They include soccer player Melissa Tancredi, swimmer Joel Greenshields, modern pentathlete Donna Vakalis and wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy. Vakalis has to equip herself for five sports; Cassidy has to pay thousands for a specialized chair.
“If you’re going to the wire, it gets very expensive,” said Kunkel, the 29-year-old hard-luck hurdler from Paisley, Ont., who is benefiting from the fund for a second time. The first time, he was preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, blazing to a 400-metre hurdles Canadian record and Pan American Games gold along the way. He made the 2007 world championship final at Osaka, Japan, but tore a hamstring while leading the final. He struggled to heal and still tried out for the 2008 Beijing Olympic team – only to trip and fall when he was about to qualify.
“I walked away with a concussion and a hurt knee instead of my ticket to Beijing. Everything can be going right, then you have a hiccup and it’s over. But I’ll try again, any of us would,” said Kunkel, who will compete at the Canadian track and field championships at Varsity Centre this weekend.
Not all the applicants for CAN Fund grants are Olympic rookies. Included in Tuesday’s grants were four-time Olympian Dave Ford in whitewater kayak; triple Olympic medal trampolinist Karen Cockburn; soccer striker Kara Lang; rower Dave Calder; wrestling gold medalist Carol Huynh; and Paralympic swimmer Benoit Huot.