In celebration of Canadian Sport Institute Ontario’s 25th Anniversary, we are excited to share our history and the impact CSIO has had on the Ontario and Canadian sport system by elevating people and performances in the pursuit of building champions. The stories will be told over the year-long celebration through three concurrent article series – Elevating Excellence, Elevating People, and Elevating Performances.
Our latest article comes from our Elevating Performances series, which will take a deeper look at the impact CSIO has had on some of Canada’s biggest performances on the international stage. Written by Angelina Kochatovska, the article examines the history of CSIO’s game-changing program, the Ontario High Performance Sport Initiative (OHPSI), and the monumental impact OHPSI has had on the high performance sport system and creating Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
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Debbie Low, the president and CEO of the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO), will never forget what happened on November 6, 2009. Toronto won the bid to host the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games and as a legacy, CSIO would get its facility-based sport institute, the first of its kind in Ontario.
The following year, CSIO launched the Ontario High Performance Sport Initiative Program known as OHPSI. A program that has changed the lives of over 5,000 Ontario athletes since its inception in 2010.
“The goal was always the same – trying to get as many Ontario athletes on senior national teams and then international podiums as possible,” said Low. “We have been able to refine it over the years, as we learn so much with every intake, however, the premise and the principles remains the same.”
The current program includes 20 sports and around 550 athletes. OHPSI has three main categories of support – sport science and sport medicine, coach and technical leadership, training camps and competitions.
The foundation for developing a High Performance Sport System in Ontario began with the Performance Enhancement Program (PEP) launched by CSIO (formerly Canadian Sport Centre Ontario) in 2007, as a result of additional funding from the provincial government. The program was a way to create full-time coaching opportunities and develop Integrated Support Teams (ISTs) around linked sports. That was the first step for provincial sport organizations (PSOs) to truly evaluate athletes’ performance.
Among CSIO’s accomplishments, many OHPSI alumni go on to participate at the Olympic and Paralympic Games as part of Team Canada. Since 2012, 62 OHPSI athletes have won Olympic medals and 38 OHPSI athletes have won Paralympic medals for Canada. At the most recent Summer Games, Tokyo 2020, CSIO-affiliated athletes brought home 19 of the 24 medals won by the Canadian team, 14 of which were won by former or current OHPSI athletes. An outstanding result, achieved with a lot of hard work by the Institute’s team.
“Back in 2008/09, we completed an environmental scan of what existed and didn’t exist in Ontario when it came to the high performance landscape. And one of the things we identified was that we only had one national team training centre in Ontario – rowing,” Low said. “In addition, the provincial government had identified that many athletes were leaving Ontario to go to train in other places. We needed to figure out a way to keep Ontario athletes training in Ontario and OHPSI was the answer.”
Anne Merklinger, now CEO of Own The Podium, and Angie Shen, Senior Beach Development Coach at Ontario Volleyball Association have been involved with OHPSI since its inception. Merklinger, an established sport leader, assisted in shaping the program’s initial stages. Shen became part of OHPSI as a high performance beach volleyball coach during the inaugural intake of the program. Both of them remembered the lack of support athletes faced in the past.
“When I was swimming and curling, there was no support – either providing technical guidance or financial aid. I was kind of navigating my way through the various levels of high performance sport in Canada,” Merklinger said. “There was nothing like what OHPSI is providing for athletes now.”
In the early days, she discussed with Low and the team how to help athletes to evaluate their performance in Ontario.
“I would actually sit with Debbie, evaluating sports, identifying where there were opportunities to address gaps or providing solutions and some guidance,” she said. “The province of Ontario had divested responsibility for athlete development across a number of different Ontario sport organizations to strengthen the athlete pathway. So, where you have one organization like CSIO, already having a significant responsibility at the national level, but yet at the same time, they are involved in and responsible for provincial development with the provincial sport organizations, that really helps to facilitate alignment in the sport system.”
As for Shen, she became one of the first full-time beach volleyball coaches in Canada, trying to change the lack of a systematic approach to sport in the country.
“At the beginning, we didn’t have enough resources for beach volleyball, so OHPSI became the main support that helped our national team to create the foundations to grow.”
Shen said that the program helped her to create a big picture of her sport by noticing more details.
“I think OHPSI takes on a role to coach the sport,” she said. “So, CSIO definitely supported us to professionalize our sport and question areas that we may not have seen.”
Being in a “beach bubble”, Shen began to learn more, not only about her own sport, but also, about others.
“CSIO and OHPSI have given me the opportunity to learn about beach volleyball through the lenses of other sports. Either through learning about other sport systems, other cultures, how another sport has evolved and handled any like parallels.”
Shen said that one of the main goals of OHPSI is to bring as many Ontario athletes as possible to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“The intention of OHPSI was to put Ontario athletes onto the Olympic [and Paralympic] podium. After missing the 2008 Olympics and receiving OHPSI in 2010, Canada not only qualified two beach volleyball teams in 2012, but we maximized our qualification with 4 teams consisting of OHPSI graduates in 2016.”
So far, the program has supported Olympic athletes such as Canada’s Most Decorated Olympians, Penny Oleksiak and Andre De Grasse, as well as notables Sarah Douglas and Aaliyah Edwards. On the Paralympic side, program alumni include Andrea Nelson, Tyler Miller, and Travis Murao.
James Brough, the Director of Performance Pathways at CSIO, called Nelson a “surprise” when she, paralyzed in a skydiving accident in 2017, attended the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s Paralympian Search event in Toronto shortly after her accident. Showing immense athletic talent, she was identified by Ryan Blair, Technical Director of Canoe Kayak Ontario – Sprint and became part of the OHPSI program. Later, Nelson would represent Team Canada in para kayaking at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
“CSIO and OHPSI have helped me immensely in providing me with the opportunities for high performance training. The CSIO facility, athlete services, and staff that are available to us helped me to get where I am in a very short amount of time,” Nelson said in a statement.
Acknowledging the success of the program, the CSIO team thinks there is still room for improvement.
“We would love to get additional funding so that we could include every Olympic and Paralympic sport in the OHPSI Program. We’ve been advocating for this since day one as we are limited with the funding that we currently have,” Low said.
At the moment, Ontario is the second province, behind Quebec, in terms of the provincial government’s investment into high performance sport.
Brough also said there are other areas that are evolving as well to help athletes with better performance.
“The goal is to include more investment into the areas of coaching and data analytics.”
He said that an upgraded database could help with tracking athletes’ performance and their health.
“We don’t see a ton of investment into technology, to be honest,” Brough said. “For example, if we talk about the database that monitors athlete health, it could help us to better understand the impact of injuries and particularly concussions. So, that we can limit the number of missed training days by knowing about athletes’ potential injuries.”
Another reason to include all sports in the program is the state of mental health and well-being across the country.
In 2023, Statistics Canada released a new report showing the decrease of mental health rate among Canadians and the prevalence of anxiety and mood disorders has increased among vulnerable populations. The national statistical office included the data from 2021 highlighting that over 3.4 million Canadians aged 12 years and older reported having been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Additionally, over 3.1 million had mood disorders. The increase has still been ongoing since 2015.
Low said that it may be challenging to get young Canadians more active and involved in sport and the inclusion of all sports in the OHPSI Program can help with this problem.
“Staying healthy is important for our physical and mental well-being. If every sport was included in the OHPSI Program, we can build more opportunities, inclusion, and role models, for children and sport at the grassroots level.”
Today, as the CEO of Own The Podium, Merklinger believes that OHPSI became an inspiration for other provinces to have a similar program.
“Some provinces have kind of copied OHPSI and when you copy something, it’s the biggest form of flattery, right?” she said. “So, the fact that what Debbie and her Team created in Ontario is being replicated in other provinces, again speaks to the great success it’s been.”
Coming out of the recent 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago, 34 of the 40 OHPSI athletes (current or former) on Team Canada came home with a medal – an 85% conversion rate.
Proof OHPSI continues to enhance opportunities for athletes and coaches to train and compete on the international stage – elevating people and performances in the pursuit of building champions.
Written by Angelina Kochatovska, a freelance journalist and the editor of Sweat Magazine produced by Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA).
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About Canadian Sport Institute Ontario
Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO) is a non-profit organization committed to the pursuit of excellence by providing best-in-class programs, services, and leadership to high performance athletes, coaches, and National and Provincial Sport Organizations to enhance their ability to achieve international podium performances. Our team of expert staff deliver sport science, sport medicine, life services, and coaching and technical leadership support to help Canada win medals and strengthen the sport system in Ontario and Canada. CSIO is part of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network, working in partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee, Own the Podium, and the Coaching Association of Canada. CSIO is further supported by funding partners such as the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport and Sport Canada. www.csiontario.ca
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Media Contact:
Laura Albright, Senior Advisor, Communications & Marketing
Canadian Sport Institute Ontario
Tel: 647.395.7536
Email: lalbright@csiontario.ca
www.csiontario.ca