Daily training, year-round coaching, proper nutrition, breakthroughs in technology in sport science, national and international competitions, and state-of-the-art equipment are all essential in propelling our athletes to the top of the podium. Your donation to the Help Build an Olympian campaign will help fund our athletes in these six pillars, providing a direct impact on the Canadian sport system and athlete development.
Donate to coaching and help keep our successful coaches in Canada. Your support will ensure that our next generation elite level athletes will train under the most experienced mentors in their discipline, providing them with the expertise essential for success.
Coaches are an important part of the Podium Pathway. When Canada wins, they do not stand atop the podium or receive a medal, but these selfless individuals serve as leaders, motivators, support systems, parental figures, friends and mentors. High-performance coaches play a key role in preparing our athletes for podium-worthy performances.
A strong coach offers in-depth analysis of an athlete’s performance, helps them perfect their technique, optimize their training and ultimately ensures that they reach their full potential.
The reality is that the best coaches and technicians in the world are highly sought after and will go to the country offering the best opportunity and financial incentives.
Learn more about how coaching has shaped the performances of Canadian Olympians Gilmore Junio, Rosie MacLennan, Michelle Li and Glenn Hoag.
Donate to nutrition and give Canada’s Olympic and next generation athletes access to the fuel they need to succeed. Your donation will support programs such as cooking classes for athletes and their families, and access to high-performance food and dietitians.
It’s critically important for elite athletes to fuel their bodies to maximize performance. An athlete’s dietary needs are based on a variety of factors, including training volume, body composition, type of activity, and health considerations. They need to eat the right foods, at the right time.
It’s not always easy for athletes to access the proper nutrition. Athletes may not have the financial means, or they may attend school, or their jobs, leaving them unable to access the right foods or prepare them. Without proper fuel, our athletes won’t be able to perform at the top of their game.
Read about the importance of nutrition from Natalie Spooner, Dori Yeats, the Canadian equine team’s nutrition expert and Meagan Duhamel.
It takes the help of best in class equipment for Canadian athletes to keep up with their international opponents. Donate to equipment today. Your contribution will go towards making sure the next generation of Olympic athletes have the equipment they need to reach the top level of their sport.
Every athlete in every sport requires equipment to be successful. But for an Olympian, equipment isn’t your average tread mill and free weights. Bobsled spikes cost $300. Figure skates run around $1000. A top-class table tennis paddle is $300.
Equipment gives athletes an edge. In sports where positioning is determined based on one-hundredths of a second, equipment can mean the difference between gold and finishing off the podium.
Here’s how equipment is a game changer for Olympic luger Alex Gough paddlers Ben Russell and Gabriel Beauchesne-Sévigny and bobsled pilot Justin Kripps.
Help us give a next generation athlete access to the daily training environment they need to succeed. Cost of training limits many podium hopefuls from making their dreams a reality, but with your donation we can ease the burden of daily training costs for them and their families.
A trip to the Olympic Games is a reward for years of sacrifice on the part of athletes and their families. Sadly, many Canadian athletes are forced to cut their careers short – the financial burden is simply too much for them to maintain training.
The price for success varies by sport, but between coaching, equipment, facilities, travel, and other expenditures, it can cost upwards of $15,000 a year for high-performance athletes to train and compete at the top level and it takes most Olympians 8-12 years to perfect their game.
Learn more about the daily training environments of Olympians Chris Spring , Jennifer Abel and Georgia Simmerling.
Your donation to sport science and medicine will help our athletes stay physically and mentally healthy so they’re able to compete harder for longer.
Sport science and medicine is the cornerstone of health for any athlete. Unfortunately, injuries are often inevitable when athletes are training at such high intensity and frequency. Canada’s top athletes need access to doctors and sports therapists for a speedy diagnosis and treatment when their sport physically and mentally takes a toll on them.
With the help of biomechanics technology and sport performance experts, athletes can study their movements to eliminate inefficiencies. This kind of work helps athletes perform better and prevent injuries. By incorporating state of the art equipment, like altitude chambers and tracks that measures explosiveness, Canada’s elite athletes can analyze and improve their sport behaviours to stay healthy and compete at their best.
Learn how sport science and medicine keeps decathlete Damian Warner, swimmer Martha McCabe, alpine skiier , Brad Spence and swimmer Penny Oleksiak healthy and helps them heal.
Your donation to competition will help alleviate the financial stress that athlete’s face so that they focus on their on-field performance.
Ask any elite level athletes where most of their money goes, and they won’t hesitate to say ‘travel’. This is particularly true for winter sport athletes, who may spend nearly half a season chasing snow around the world. Travel is only the tip of an athlete’s financial iceberg.
Olympians and other high-performance athletes are responsible for a portion of their ‘team fees’. Team fees is an umbrella term for a wide variety of expenses that can include travel to competition and training camps, accommodations, living expenses while on the road, competition entry fees and any other general fees that an athlete pays to be part of their sport’s high-performance program. Though it varies by sport, team fees can cost an athlete anywhere from $500 to upwards of $30,000 per year.
Learn about how traveling the world (or country) for competition is key for Olympic ski jumper Taylor Henrich women's national team baseball athlete Bradi Wall and fencer Eleanor Harvey.
