After the Podium

Jane Roos, executive director of Canadian Athletes Now, talks about the challenges of life as an amateur athlete in Canada, and what her organization is doing to help.

The Vancouver Games are only three months away, and Olympic fever is rising, but we’ve heard very little from or about the athletes in the lead-up. That’s partially because they’re busy training for what could be the most important day of their lives, but it could also be because they’re holding down a part-time job. Jane Roos is the founder of charity organization Canadian Athletes Now, which is hosting Talent Supporting Talent, an online auction of paintings made by twenty-four famous Canadians in support of our amateur athletes. (See the paintings here.) The Mark’s Terese Saplys caught up with Jane to talk about the hard reality of being a Canadian amateur athlete.

In your opinion, why is it important that we have successful amateur athletes in Canada? What role do they play in Canadian culture?

We identify our country with success, or we should, anyways. You want a country made of people who are dreamers and go-getters who will live their passion, and that’s what our athletes show us.

Athletes give everything they’ve got for a complete unknown. When they were little, someone encouraged them. We tell our children to be the best you can be, and, when we see our athletes succeed, they’re realizing that dream. In this country, we need to invest more in that.

What happens to our amateur athletes after they exit the Olympic stage?

People assume that everything’s taken care of when you make a national team, but that’s not the case. Athletes have always been at the bottom of the totem pole.

Roughly forty-two per cent of the athletes that have applied to Canadian Athletes Now are ranked top ten in the world, and they have negative incomes. Top-level athletes are living off $1,500 a month. The money athletes earn through sponsorships does not go straight to them. It trickles down through their organization, and they end up with very little of it.

Many of our athletes pay for additional coaching, equipment, training camps, and proper food – some of these athletes eat 6,000 calories a day. Ninety per cent of the athletes in the Vancouver Games are paying for their own equipment, which can cost as much as $30,000 per year.

Whenever you make a national team, there are fees attached. Imagine walking into your work and having your manager tell you that, to work there, you need to pay $3,000.

Our athletes are at the mercy of these fees: if they don’t pay, they can’t compete, and there are lots of athletes behind them willing to take that place for a fee. It’s frustrating to see that, and then to see everyone parade them on a national stage when they win a medal for Canada.

How does the situation of Canadian athletes compare with that of athletes from other countries?

In the United States, the corporations really get behind their athletes. Corporate Canada could do a much better job at that. Australia has special training centres for its athletes that take care of everything – all they have to worry about is succeeding.

All the women on the national hockey team are recipients of Canadian Athletes Now. Every athlete in Beijing, aside from triathlon athlete Simon Whitfield and the equestrian Eric Lamaze, was a recipient.

The sports system doesn’t work in this country. I know a lot of people are working to improve it, but unfortunately they’re not fast enough for the athletes that are competing in the Vancouver Olympics or in 2012 or 2016.

The Talent Supporting Talent celebrity art auction runs from October 15 to November 2. See the twenty-four paintings, and the stories of their inspiration, here.