Scarcity behind the medals: Canada's national sport organizations running deficits

Canada's Isabelle Weidemann races in the women's 5000-metre event at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Calgary, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Todd Korol

The winner of a complete set of medals and Canada’s Olympic flag-bearer in Beijing’s closing ceremonies is in debt.

Isabelle Weidemann wasn’t comfortable stating how far she’s in the red. The 29-year-old from Ottawa is paying for things her national sport organization can no longer afford.

“Even at this top level, three Olympic medals, got to carry the flag, the hope is you come out the other side and you’re not too far from zero, that you don’t have to spend years digging yourself out of this hole,” Weidemann said.

“To think we struggle to buy groceries, struggle to maintain equipment or purchase training necessities, all these expenses just to be able to compete with the rest of the world, there’s such a discrepancy there.”

Speed Skating Canada’s chief executive officer Joe Morissette acknowledged his organization has cut back.

“Over many years, we’ve retreated in certain areas,” he stated. “If funding is stagnant, we can only do so much.”

The last increase in core federal funding for Canada’s 62 summer and winter national sport organizations was in 2005.

Core funding is money all NSOs count on to fund operations, athletes, coaches and support staff. Freestyle Canada’s chief executive officer Peter Judge called it the “blood in the veins” of his organization.

It’s different from Own The Podium money, which is targeted to sports demonstrating medal potential.

A year out from the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, Canadian athletes are winning World Cup medals every weekend across multiple sports.

Canada’s nine gold medals and 27 total last year in Paris were both records for a non-boycotted Summer Olympics.

But many sport leaders say those results aren’t sustainable because of ballooning scarcity beneath them.

“What you’re seeing is the last of the blood pumped through the veins,” Judge said. “We’re running a $600,000 deficit this year and we probably will have to again next year. Otherwise we just start firing people. We’re down to skin and bones.”

Reduced services for top athletes, such as fewer paid travel meals and less access to a team doctor on the road, and diminished support for the next generation were common themes. Two decades' worth of inflation since 2005 was cited as an aggravating factor.

The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic committees lobbied on behalf of national sport organizations for a $104-million increase in annual core funding in the 2024 budget.

The money was not forthcoming, although athletes received a 23-per-cent increase in their monthly Athletes Assistance Program (AAP) cheques, from $1,765 per month to about $2,170.

That raise is getting eaten up by athletes paying for more training and competition costs, and for an increase in “team fees”, which is what athletes pay their federations.

Bobsledders fork anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000 from their own pockets to Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, which CEO Kien Tran said was a five-fold increase over the previous year.

“If I could sum it up, because of this lack of funding, sports in Canada is becoming just pay to play,” Tran said. “It falls on the athletes. You may be not be getting the best athletes. You may be getting the best athletes that can afford this.”

Speed Skating Canada has dropped team fees marginally, but “we’ve also downloaded so many new costs to our participants,” Morissette said.

The COC and CPC are again lobbying the federal government on behalf of NSOs. The ask now is now for a $144-million annual increase in core funding in the 2025 budget.

Survey data indicates 80 per cent of NSOs are skipping competitions athletes would normally attend, 70 per cent have paused, scaled back or eliminated programming, 90 per cent have reduced or eliminated training camps and 80 per cent have increased athlete fees, said COC CEO David Shoemaker.

“This is not guesswork. We had Deloitte run a study, and it’s now gotten to the point where Deloitte’s forecast shows that these NSOs will run an aggregate deficit of $329 million over the next five years,” Shoemaker said.

Federal politics is in flux, and an election could bring a seventh ministerial change in eight years to the sports portfolio.

“Our government remains committed to supporting our national sport organizations (NSOs) and the athletes who inspire us,” said a statement from the office of federal sports minister Terry Duguid, who was appointed in December. “We recognize the financial challenge they face, including rising training and competition costs.”

The statement referred to the raise in athletes' “carding” money last year, as well as $16 million committed to safe sport and $15 million for removing barriers to community sport programs over two years.

Olympic champion freestyle skier Cassie Sharpe and speedskater Ivanie Blondin are alarmed by what they see when they look over their shoulders.

“The B and C athletes on the national team, they’re on the national circuit to be at World Cups and world championships, but where those athletes used to have funding for flights and accommodation, the budget for that is much smaller,” said Sharpe.

Where once Speed Skating Canada sent a full contingent of 24 long-track skaters to international World Cups, it’s now 16.

“We’re seeing a lot of young, talented athletes lose the motivation because the NSO doesn’t have the means and the funds to be able to send them to international events or send them on training camps,” Blondin said.

Alpine Canada CEO Therese Brisson says the focus on preparing Olympic athletes leaves NextGen athletes to fund themselves.

“Only athletes with means can participate when you have team fees in the $45,000 range,” she said.

“That keeps me up at night.”

Shoemaker says government could direct more sports-betting revenue to NSOs. A Deloitte report released in 2024 stated the second year of regulated gambling in Ontario alone produced $380 million in federal government revenue.

“That tax revenue could more than cover what we need as a contribution to the national sports system,” Shoemaker said.

The four revenue pillars for an NSO are registration fees, corporate sponsorship, hosting events and government funding.

Mass-participation sports such as hockey and soccer can increase membership fees to compensate for the funding gap. In a niche sport like luge, the situation is dire.

“You always found a way to make it through. It’s at the point where I don’t know where else to cut,” Luge Canada CEO Tim Farstad said. “I’ve been here for 20 years and I’ve never felt this way before.

“The athletes aren’t just paying for their travel. They’re having to pay for us to have an organization.”

Making sport safe from maltreatment and abuse costs money, from the hiring of a safe-sport officer to educating coaches, athletes and support staff. Money spent on lawyers in complaint tribunals is also money not spent on athletes, coaches and competition.

“The line that was used was underfunded sport is not safe sport. We hired someone to be our safe sport officer. That will be a job at Curling Canada forever now, but funding hasn’t changed since 2005,” said Curling Canada CEO Nolan Thiessen.

“When you have limited resources, you have to make decisions. Those are the hard discussions that the sport system has to make. The costs get driven down to the end user.”

Corporate sponsorship is a tougher get amid both the proliferation of pro leagues and what’s been called a safe-sport crisis in Canada.

Sensational headlines, including Canada Soccer’s drone spying scandal in last year’s Olympic Games and Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual assault allegations against members of its 2018 junior hockey team, has a knock-on effect.

“We’re all trying to find sponsors. There’s this kind of feeling right now in Canada you know ‘Canadian sport, do we trust them anymore?’ Every time those things happen, it knocks all of us down a notch,” Farstad said.

“The government doesn’t understand how critical it is right now. It’s not just us asking for more money again. We’re at the end of the rope.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press