High Performance Sport

Summer 2021 SIRCuit

The Summer 2021 SIRCuit is now available! The SIRCuit is designed to highlight important research and insights to advance the Canadian sport system. With the summer Olympic and Paralympic Games...

Building a culture of excellence in high performance sport

July 19, 2021

Highlights In sport, culture can determine a team’s focus and how members communicate and deal with conflict. Culture also establishes norms of acceptable behaviour and directly influences functioning and performance....

Sport climbing

Sport climbing is scheduled to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo this summer. Research shows that sport climbing is a safe sport with low injury frequency. However, climbing on artificial...

Podium hopefuls

The upcoming Tokyo Games will provide a platform for Canadian athletes to shine. For many, their development path has not been a straight line from playground to podium. Learn about...

Holistic approach to athlete development

A holistic approach to athlete development considers the interconnections between different spheres of an athlete’s life, and recognizes their impact on performance. Whether athletes are struggling with the ongoing impacts...

Pandemic gymnastics

“We saw how important it was for the athletes to compete again and to be under that kind of positive pressure… Getting athletes in front of even virtual judges was...

Body temperature and performance

Did you know that during training and competition, the “ideal” internal body temperature shifts from ~37°C to ~38.5°C? Research shows slightly increasing body temperature through a passive warm-up can increase...

Pandemic curling

“This is just one huge exercise in risk management… the health risks, financial risk, reputation risk, and compliance risk. It’s sort of risk management on steroids.” In the SIRCuit, Curling...

Heroic acts

Less than three months after helping the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl victory, Laurent Duvernay-Tardiff returned to Canada to assist with a coronavirus outbreak at a long-term care...

Impact of COVID-19 on athlete retirement

In a survey of national team athletes led by Game Plan in 2020, 34% of respondents said the postponement of the Tokyo Games changed their retirement plan from sport. Some...