Hughes Lobbies for More Corporate Funding for Athletes
CALGARY — The math doesn’t add up for Clara Hughes.
On one hand, the red-headed Canadian speedskater has enjoyed much financial support since claiming Olympic gold and silver at the 2006 Turin Games.
But on the other, her fellow Canadian teammates – and potential Olympic medallists – aren’t receiving the same sort of financial boosts heading into the 2010 Vancouver Games.
“I have a lot of friends in different sports who came out of Turin with medals and hoped to get some kind of financial support and haven’t come up with much of anything,” Hughes said Wednesday, following a news conference at Canada Olympic Park. “I’ve been so lucky over the years and so fortunate to have the support of countless individuals and corporations . . . I just felt like, ‘Why isn’t this happening for more of my teammates?’ “
Earlier this month, Hughes and many of Canada’s top athletes heading into the 2010 Olympics received financial backing through Own the Podium, a $130-million, five-year funding program thanks to federal and provincial levels of government, the Vancouver Organizing Committee, and the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees.
But the 36-year-old said Wednesday there is a misconception that all Canada’s Olympians are taken care of financially.
“There’s this thought that, ‘The athletes are sponsored because everything else is going so good,’ “ said Hughes, who is splitting her time this year between Calgary and Richmond, B.C., the site of the 2010 Olympic speedskating event. “I think this assumption has been created and I think it’s incorrect that athletes are doing well sponsorship-wise.
“There are a few (athletes) that are doing well but there are many that a modest sponsorship could make a big difference.”
While Hughes receives various levels of funding from her sponsors Pure Fruit Technologies, Bell, Visa, and the local law firm Osler Calgary, others are desperate for help.
Michelle Kelly, a Calgary-based skeleton racer who was a success on the track last season winning three World Cup gold medals, has no personal sponsors and isn’t eligible for Own the Podium funding thus far.
“It’s tough, as an amateur athlete in Canada,” said the 33-year-old Fort St. John, B.C., native, who just missed the cut for the 2006 Olympics. “Especially in a sport like skeleton, which isn’t maybe a mainstream sport.
“It’s tough to get Canada behind you, and I understand . . . but it’s hard as an elite athlete to stay at the level you’re at without that backing.”
Hughes agreed, saying that many of her teammates don’t enjoy the same luxuries to fund their expenses.
“Some of them are having to work,” said Hughes, who departs Friday for the World Cup speedskating circuit in Europe. “Some of them just aren’t able to focus 100 per cent on the athletic process which if you want to be the best in the world, you absolutely have to do . . . and this is probably the best time – and might be the best time ever – to get businesses involved.”
