Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba – Athletes are better, faster and stronger today than ever before. Advances in sport science, sport medicine, nutrition, and strength and conditioning in the last two decades have allowed elite athletes to do the impossible. In Canada, 2016 showed a successful Games as athletes came home with their largest ever medal haul at a Summer Olympics.

And yet, many of them are unable to make ends meet.

Rio 2016 

The Rio 2016 Olympics were a glorious two weeks. Penny Oleksiak became Canada’s most decorated athlete in one Games at the age of 16. 21-year-old Andre De Grasse challenged Olympic legend Usain Bolt on the track in breathtaking fashion, and Canadian flag-bearer Rosie MacLennan defended her Olympic title.
 
As the lights dimmed and the celebrations came to an end, Canada’s elite athletes returned to a darker reality.

Nadya Crossman-Serb

Read more about Nadya or click here to support her today. 

The cost of being elite

Every year, Sport Canada gives 25 million dollars to aspiring and current Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

At first glance, 25 million dollars seems like a lot. Realistically, that funding money is distributed amongst 1,800 athletes across 60 National Sport Organizations. This allowance averages out to about $1,200 per athlete per month; specifically, $1,500 a month for Senior carded athletes and $900 a month for Development carded athletes.

While a handful of athletes – including Olympic medallists – see a little more cash from the federal government, many high performance athletes in Canada are failing to stay in the black. 
 
In part, this is due to increased costs in sport, such as travel, equipment, and sport science costs. In the next fiscal year, Sport Canada may increase its Athlete Assistance Program (APP) carding budget. Doing so would be the first AAP carding increase since 2004. Inflation has increased living costs and daily expenses by 25%, since that time.

To athletes, this is the equivalent of losing a quarter of their annual salary in little over a decade.

The numbers

A 2014 report from Sport Canada showed that carded athletes had an average annual income of $25,616. In contrast, their expenses on average amount to nearly $40,000 a year.

Just under half of those expenditures are sport-related, while slightly over half are necessary living expenses such as housing, food, and hydro.

$1,200 per month – average AAP carding money 
$2,052 per month – average living costs 
$1,460 per month – average sport-related costs

The average carded athlete in Canada faces a deficit of nearly $15,000 a year. For athletes aged 20 years or younger, this number is closer to $30,000 a year.
  
While training costs and income can vary widely amongst Canadian athletes, those hurting the most are individual sport athletes living and training outside their home province. Individual sport athletes spend over twice as much as team sport athletes do on their sport-related costs.

Non-government funding is distributed mostly to National Sport Organizations (NSO’s) with a history of success, meaning athletes in non-targeted sports are suffering greatly. Several smaller NSO’s are unable to fully fund their athletes at large international competitions and World Championship events. 
 

What it means

As the world’s best athletes try to focus on performing on demand, financial woes remain a very real performance barrier. Training, now more than ever, is a full-time job. Physical, mental, and emotional demands on elite athletes are the highest they’ve ever been.

Individual sport athletes spend twice as much as team sport athletes do on sport-related costs. Training camps, competitions, travelling, and other obligations throw a wrench in part-time income prospects, and locking down sponsorship is exceptionally difficult for anyone who hasn’t stood on an Olympic podium. Ultimately, many athletes afford to train, compete, and fulfil their Olympic dreams on the dollar of their friends and family. 

Canadians are ending their careers well before they peak – committing to a second or third Olympic quadrennial doesn’t just mean another four years of incurring debt, it means another four years of forgoing full-time education, employment and professional advancement. 

Away from an Olympic stage, following the high performance path is far from glamorous. It requires continuous grit and determination from the athlete, and the support of the community around them. It is a resource intensive commitment that is not evident to the public eye in the few minutes of broadcasted competition. 
 
From an outsider’s perspective, Canadian athletes look to be thriving, and in a sense they are. Olympic medal counts are higher than ever, Canadian records are being crushed, and for those two illustrious weeks every other year, it all seems to be well, the challenge is making it there. 

Behind the glory of it all, the pursuit of excellence is a costly choice.

MAKE A CHAMP

About CSCM: 
The Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba (CSCM) was created as one of the many legacies of the 1999 Pan American Games held in Winnipeg. Today, CSCM is the hub for high-performance sport in Manitoba. A proud member of the Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network, CSCM works to provide a world-class, multi-sport daily training environment for athletes and coaches through integrated services and programs in the fields of physiology, strength and conditioning, nutrition, psychology and support services.

For more information, contact:
Jeff Powell
General Manager, Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba
Direct Line: 204.474.7148 | Email: media@cscm.ca