Nineteen sports join cause, including Hockey Canada and the
Canadian Soccer Association;
Elite individual athletes also speak up for the
‘foundation’ of their careers
“There is urgency for team
sports to work together,” said Wayne Parrish, Executive Director, Canada
Basketball. “The Canadian sport system currently focuses largely on medal count
to determine funding. This model does not reflect the many benefits of team
sport, such as leadership, the physical development of children, economic
impact, community development and patriotism. In this coalition we have a new
crop of leaders who are willing to work to bring these issues to the
forefront.”
In addition to publishing
an independently researched report entitled Full Team Ahead: The Benefits of
Team Sport to Canadian Sport, the coalition surveyed 572 high performance
English and French Canadian athletes to help prove the importance of team
sport.
The survey results reveal,
among other findings:
- Participating in team sports is the foundation from
which almost all elite Canadian athletes emerge, whether or not they move
on to individual sports later in their careers. - 90 per cent of the athletes surveyed participated in
team sports in the developmental stages of their careers. - 73 per cent of the athletes surveyed indicated that
participation in team sport was very important to their development
as an athlete.
The Full Team Ahead: The
Benefits of Team Sport to Canadian Sport report also revealed that seven of
the top 10 most popular sports (based on participation) are team sports and
that team sports play an important role in building communities and in
socializing young Canadians. Research also reveals that in terms of overall
involvement in sport (through participating, volunteering and attending events)
team sports outperform individual sports by a significant margin: 24 million
Canadians are engaged in some manner in team sports, as compared with 10
million Canadians who are involved in individual sports.
"There is no doubt
that team sport faces unique challenges, and as sport leaders we know there are
serious funding issues,” added John-Paul Cody-Cox, Executive Director,
Volleyball Canada.
“Approximately 17 percent of Sport Canada's direct grants and contributions go
to team sport organizations. Many of the sport leaders interviewed as part of
this project feel this is a significant disparity."
“The
focus of the Canadian Team Sports Coalition is to strengthen our team sport in
Canada by raising awareness levels of its distinct benefits, many of which have
been highlighted in our research,” added Bob Nicholson, Executive Director and
Chief Executive Officer, Hockey Canada. “We hope that our efforts as a
coalition will help change a funding model that focuses primarily on medal
count.”
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For further information, including complete 2009 Canadian Team Sports Coalition
research results and report, visit www.canadateam.ca