Athletes Boosted by Canadian Olympic Committee Support

The Canadian Olympic Committee says it’s doubling its support to elite athletes over the next four years thanks to new and “unprecedented” support from the corporate sector.

The combination of ongoing government funding and this new corporate support “will guarantee … a bright and golden future for Canadian athletes, ailment ” COC president Marcel Aubut said on Wednesday.

There were few details provided about where the $100 million in corporate funding came from or which sports will benefit from it. The funding will be doled out to both summer and winter sports in four priority areas, arthritis Aubut said. Those include support for high-performance sport, Olympic preparation, national sport federation development and a specific envelope for Toronto’s 2015 Pan American Games team.

Those priorities have been endorsed by all the sporting communities, said Marie-Claire Rouleau, president of Speed Skating Canada. She was one of several heads of sport federations who welcomed the announcement saying it would support athletes’ Olympics dreams.

“Money makes it possible,” she said.

Many winter sport federations have struggled since the 2010 Vancouver Games to keep existing corporate sponsors and find new ones.