Marcel Aubut, President-elect of the Canadian Olympic Committee, speaks to the press on Thursday February 11, 2010 at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.Rick Eglinton
The new president of the Canadian Olympic Committee says he is shocked by the sudden drop-off of Canadian leaders of international sport federations and has pledged to back future candidates to combat the European domination.
Marcel Aubut says it's "absolutely crucial" that Canadians hold presidencies of international bodies and build influence at the International Olympic Committee.
"Even more than that, we'll involve [Canadian sport leaders]at the COC level to make sure we know on time when they are going to need our help to stay in the job," Aubut said.
Less than seven months ago, the curtain came down in Vancouver on a very successful Winter Olympics. Canada won more gold medals than any previous Winter Games host. But Canada has been losing elections among sports federations. When you step back and look at the big picture, panic bells start to ring.
Once, Canada had two regular full members of the IOC in Richard Pound and Carol Anne Letheren. It also had IOC athlete representative Charmaine Crooks, and several presidents of international federations in Paul Henderson (sailing), Adham Sharara (table tennis), Les McDonald (triathlon) and Bob Storey (bobsleigh).
However in the past eight years, Letheren has died; Crooks's mandate has expired, as has that of Henderson; McDonald, after fighting to get a revamped version of triathlon into the Olympics, got replaced; Storey lost a re-election to a European bobsleigh candidate by two votes and Sharara is soon to retire as table tennis head. The only new blood is antidrug crusader and cross-country ski gold medalist Beckie Scott, a new athlete representative.
Canada's diminishing voice internationally has an impact on selection of Olympic sites, the running of sports events and the making of rules.
A questioning letter from Sharara to Aubut brought other Olympians into the fray. Canadians spent millions of dollars through the Own the Podium program toward putting Canadians on the Vancouver medal stand - but stood on the sidelines as Europeans campaigned to wrest the bobsleigh presidency from Storey after 16 years.
"We're leaders elsewhere. There's no reason why we can't have a strategy that's focused and committed toward getting Canadians to the highest rung of sport," Crooks said. "I'm deeply saddened for Bob Storey. Months after hosting the best Winter Olympics ever, we've lost two great Canadian leaders of sport," she said of Storey and of Les Harrison, who was running for the international presidency of curling - and lost.
Aubut agrees there has to be a strategy to get Canadians back on top of sport, just as Europeans have in making sport Eurocentric.
"What's happening now is very disappointing, but it just emphasizes more that we have to have fair space at the international level," Aubut said. His method is to groom leaders through the COC, which considers itself Canada's international authority in sport. Just after he won the COC presidency in the spring, he created a new COC committee called External Relations.
"I asked Walter Sieber to chair it, and the vice chairs will be Les Harrison [curling] Bob Nicholson [hockey] Adam Kreek [rowing gold medalist] Tricia Smith [COC vice-president] Charmaine Crooks, Dick Pound, Adham Sharara and Bob Storey."
Henderson said the international federations are the real powers running sport. They have the sway over key world sporting events, plus Olympic venues and other multisport Games.
"But international federation guys are treated as lepers in Canada," Henderson said. "Most European countries do everything possible to get their people in charge. In Canada, we don't. The COC says it is the voice for international sport - and they've managed to convince everyone of that. Sport Canada has an entire department devoted to international sport, but I never got a call from them in 30 years as a sailing executive," Henderson said.
Pound said that some European countries "have national policies and extensive financing available for their [sport federation]candidates. Canada never has.
"If [federation]presidencies are regarded as important, it will cost money to get seats at the table and it will take time to build up support for candidates - perhaps decades, given the tendency to longevity at the top. Europe often has 50 per cent or more of the votes, and a well-developed belief that sport should be run from Europe, so strategic alliances are required," Pound said.
Kreek, a four-time world champion rower and a member of the COC, said Canada's philosophy of inclusion was a reason to keep Canadians in leadership roles in sport. "Throughout the last 100 years women, blacks, and homosexuals have all have used sport to assert their parity to the mainstream," he said. "Sport mobilizes people. Sport brings people together."