Access to facilities and frequent competition are vital to develop high-level athletes in winter sports, says curler Colleen Jones. Photo: Scott Lilwall

Winter Olympics

Many challenges for elite athletes in N.S.

Few facilities, small population combine to make it tough for Nova Scotians to compete at the Olympic level

The Canadian Olympic Committee has released the names of the athletes who will represent our country in the Vancouver Winter Games.  With only two names from Nova Scotia included, the announcement highlights some of the challenges faced by elite athletes in the province.

Dartmouth-born snowboarder Sarah Conrad and Cole Harbour's Sidney Crosby are the only Nova Scotians nominated to take part in the Games. Compare that to a province such as Saskatchewan, which has a similar population, and has had at least six athletes nominated.  While Nova Scotia athletes do make frequent appearances in the Summer Games, especially in the rowing events, it's rare that the province sends more than a handful to compete in winter sports.

One of the main problems facing Olympic hopefuls in Nova Scotia is the lack of proper facilities in the province to practise in, says Ken Bagnell, president of the Canadian Sports Centre Atlantic, an organization that aims to help develop high-level athletes in Atlantic Canada.

"A lot of times, there are athletes (from Nova Scotia) that have to move to places like Calgary to train," Bagnell said, adding that the facilities built from when that city hosted the 1988 Winter Games makes it the "one place in Canada to train" for some athletes.

That sentiment is echoed by Neil Evans, the Nova Scotia's provincial speed-skating coach for the upcoming 2011 Canada Winter Games. Evans says it's not only the quality of the facilities, but also the number of them. With few places for them to practise in, it can be hard to train. He used the example of renting ice time to practise speed-skating: in British Columbia, $40 an hour is a normal price, whereas in Nova Scotia, people pay closer to $165-$200 an hour.

"That's obviously going to affect how much time you spend on the ice," Evans said. As a result, he says the skaters that he trains in Nova Scotia may end up practising a fraction of time that people in other provinces do.

The Canada Games Legacy

Both Neil and Bagnell say there will be more opportunities for high-level athletes in the province after Halifax hosts the Canada Games. Eleven venues across Nova Scotia will be used for the Games, and many of them are getting major renovations. Ski Wentworth is making  upgrades to its snowmaking equipment, which will allow skiers and snowboarders more time to train, and a Olympic-sized short-track speed-skating facility will be put in at St. Margaret's Centre in Upper Tantallon.

But the actual facilities aren't the only important legacy left behind by the Canada Games. Neil says the equipment used during the competition will be a great help to local sports clubs and athletes. Bagnell says the experience that people get from a big event such as the Canada Games will be a big boon to the province's future athletes.

"Volunteers, coaches and officials are a legacy of the Canada Games as well," Bagnell says. "Often, you don't appreciate the volunteers, but they are really those that drive the sport."

People and place

While better facilities may give the province's hopefuls a boost, Nova Scotia will always face problems that some other parts of Canada do not have to deal with, according to Halifax-born curling champion Colleen Jones.

"What we lack is the population base...and the geography," said Jones. "You need the competition to get better - you need the events to get better. [If] you don't have the population and the geography, you can have the best facilities in the world, and it won't matter."

Jones says that an athlete in Atlantic Canada may be able to go to a couple competitions a year, whereas someone in a more populous province such as Ontario can make it to a dozen. For a young athlete still making a name for themselves, travelling to even those few contests  can become expensive.

"Funding goes to the elite athletes, but you need to develop at a younger age," she said. "And parents will be the ones who end up playing that."

Jones says when she was just starting out in curling, she was living "on Visa and lines of credit."

Jamie Ferguson, CEO of Sport Nova Scotia, says that "funding is one of the main obstacles facing athletes in this province."

While elite athletes do receive some funding from both the province and the federal government, the support for younger athletes receive much less. Given the amount of time that they need to put in to training, and the expense of equipment and renting facilities, some promising athletes are kept from dedicating themselves fully to their sport, Ferguson says.

Jones would like to see bigger tax breaks for parents who have children in a competitive sport, as well as more focus on physical education in schools. These would go a lot further, she says, in supporting young athletes than direct government funding.

"You can't expect the government to fund the dreams of every future Crosby out there," she said. "Every 10-year-old thinks they are going to play in the NHL."

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