The sad truth of Canadian Olympians is they can't get enough fundings. Now amount of government help will help them. There are just too many disciplines that needs the money and there is only so much to spread around.
Canada finished 1 Gold 5 Silver 12 Bronze
a total of 18 medals.
I am not knocking at our athletes. How can you not be proud of our Canadian Women's Soccer team winning the Bronze after a heartbreaking and TERRIBLE refereeing? They deserved an opportunity at Gold. It didn't happen. They said what they wanted and moved on and concentrate on a change a medal.
Or the heartbreak of the Canadian 4x100 men's relay team? DQ only because the tippy-toe of his foot stepped on the line. And have a read of this story. It really gives the meaning to be Canadian.
Why can't we get more corporate support? Is it always get something in return if I do something for you?
The only truly Canadian corporate sponsors for Olympic athletes are; Bell, RBC, Petro-Canada and Rona. Their advertisement were very prominent during the Olympics (I especially love the Rona one - across Canada relay of a screwdriver).
Other sponsors include P&G, Wal-mart but they're not Canadian companies. It's true there aren't that many Canadian own company but what has been a common theme is we, as viewers, aren't exposed to certain events in non-olympic year; gymnastics, triathlets, decathletes etc.. What we do see is the "popular" sports; tennis, soccer, golf, baseball, hockey, etc..
Although sponsorship is one of those interesting things, it's about business. I think there are lots of resource in Canada that can help but because of the politics of business, vast possibility of funds kind of just slip away.
Canadian companies that could sponsor athletes? Telus, Rogers, Home Hardware (but they already sponsor Special Olympics), Huskies, McCain Foods, Maple Leaf Food, Molson (even though it's now owned by Coors Brewery and it's probably not the best sponsor for athletes...), and all 5 major Canadian Banks (TD, CIBC, Scotia, BMO). These companies listed could be tapped for multi-billion dollars resource. But here's the issue; RBC is an official sponsor and in the world of business (as my limited business classes would have me understand is) when one major company has pour money in, it is almost always true other companies will not do anything due to the exclusive rights that they enjoy. The best example will be Scotiabank and the NHL. Scotiabank owns exclusive rights as sponsors of NHL and it is also a reason why you can get custom NHL logo on cheques that other banks cannot provide.
With that being said though, the past few Olympics broadcasts were actually a joint venture between Bell Media and Rogers. This is why you were able to view A LOT of Olympic events on CTV, TSN that are owned by Bell and on Rogers Sportsnet. Were it not for the Olympics, they would be completing for certain rights.
Getting back to my point is that exclusive rights sometimes messes up the untapped funding for athletes. BMO sponsors both the Toronto FC AND Montreal Impact soccer teams of MLS, and Canadian Soccer Association but because they're primary sponsor.
We really need more corporate sponsors on the amateur athletes of sports we don't hear about. How can we expect them to achieve in winning medal when the athletes themselves have to work for their own trainer, nutritionist and etc? Should we be satisfied with just 18 medals and a disappointing ONE gold medal finish? No. And this shouldn't be just about the athletes, the paralympic athletes are OFTEN overlooked.
I hope the Canadian Women's soccer team will be the inspiration that can help capture more corporate fundings for other Olympic sports because A LOT of us will never have an opportunity to experience the Olympic dream. It is through these athletes that we live our imaginations. They're the ones that inspires and brings a nation together.
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