4. Oval Updates
The Dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology, Dr. Wayne Giles, has named Catriona Le May Doan Associate Director and Kameron Kiland Director of the Olympic Oval.
Le May Doan a former two–time Olympic gold medalist, says her goal is to support the athletes in the critical year leading up to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, “My focus is clearly on this next year leading up to the Vancouver Games. I want to ensure that our athletes have everything they need to succeed. My message to the athletes who train here, and to the city of Calgary, is that it’s business as usual - The Oval is here for them.”
Kiland has been the Director of Operations with the Olympic Oval since January 2002. Kiland is also part of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic ice making team, helping to create and maintain ice for the Pacific Coliseum, which will house short track and figure skating events.
Staff members from the Olympic Oval met with Oval Program athletes on March 10th to update them on the current situation. Here are some of the excerpts;
Oval Funding
To summarize, the Oval is funded by the returns that the CODA (now WinSport) funds earn on a yearly basis. Due to the current financial crisis, the funds did not provide the anticipated returns and subsequently, the Oval is not receiving the funding that was budgeted. Through the Legacy Agreements of the 1988 Olympic Games, CODA is responsible to fund 2/3 of the Operating costs of the Oval. The University is responsible for 1/3. When CODA could not fund their 2/3, it then forced the University to cover more than their budgeted 1/3, creating a big problem at the University.
In reaction to the financial issues, The University, more specifically the Department of Kinesiology of which the Oval is a part, has made some staffing and structure changes over the past several months to try to address the financial shortfall. Other areas that are being addressed are user fees for all user groups who access the facility, including the Public, Campus Recreation, Dinos Athletics, any bookings for events, etc. The majority of the increases to these other user groups are substantially more than the fee increases to the Oval Program athletes.
CODA/U of C Mandates
CODA's mandate is to support the operation of the legacy facilities. They make it clear that they do not support programming, as high performance sport programming is the mandate of the NSOs, PSOs, etc. The U of C mandate is to support the academic programming and focus more on the undergraduate student. Neither of our funding partners have mandates nor can they financially continue to support, the high performance programs to the extent that the Oval has been over the years.
The Oval is currently working with Speed Skating Canada and will soon be contacting the PSOs to work on how high performance programs will be managed and supported in the future at the Oval.
Fees
Athlete fees are another area that needed to be addressed. It was explained that the true cost recovery for a Canadian skater in the Oval Program would be $6300. This is based on all expenses for the Programs area including coach travel to camps and competitions, physio agreement with Sports Med Center that allows the 10 free visits for the athletes on the Provincial Contracts, etc. This cost recovery amount would not apply to the International Athletes (who pay more) because the Internationals do not access all of the support services and coach travel to Canada Cups, etc, which the Canadian athletes receive in support.
2009-2010 New Proposed Fees
"Proposed" fees because they will be approved at the CODA Allocations Committee Meeting on Monday, March 16th.
Canadian Athlete Coaching Fee: $3250
Canadian Athlete Facility Fee (includes ice and weight room): $250
International Athlete Coaching Fee: $4600
Int'l Athlete Facility Fee (includes ice and weight room): ~$500
LINK Canadian Athlete Coaching Fees (Year): $1850
Facility Fees: $250
There will no longer be a "new athlete fee". New athletes to the program will pay the same as the 2nd year, etc. This fee reduction was based on the fact that many new athletes to the program came at the end of the summer. The trend is now to come early at the start of the season, get settled-in early, before school starts, etc.
Adopt-an-Athlete Program
A new opportunity for the Athletes is to get their fees covered through donations. This program was designed to help off-set or completely cover the coaching and facility fees for any individual athlete who can acquire a donation or multiple donations through the Adopt-an-Athlete program. The benefit to the donor is that the University will issue a tax receipt for the donation. This has been a very successful program in DINOS Athletics (Adopt-a-Dino).
The donation will go to the Development office in Kinesiology (only this office can issue a tax receipt) and then forwarded to the Oval to cover the fees of the individual athlete who brought in the donation. Details on the timing of when fees are due and how this will work with the Provincial contracts still needs to be worked-out with the PSOs.
Summer Camps
The summer camps are running and are posted on; http://oval.ucalgary.ca/public/camps The only change to Summer Camps is that Summer Speed will only have a long track component. This is due to the fact that the Oval High Performance Short Track Program athletes will be preparing for Olympic Trials in August and they will require ice time and a pre-trials competition to prepare for Olympic Trials.
5. Speed Skating Canada Awards
Speed Skating Canada invites you all to submit nominations for this year’s awards. The online application (http://www.speedskating.ca/Awards.cfm) is the quickest and easiest way to fill out a nomination and the deadline is Friday, April 17, 2009. The awards will be presented during the Annual General Meeting in Richmond, BC, June 18-21, 2009. Please note the creation of a new award this year; the Officials Award of Excellence.
The awards for which you are invited to nominate people are:
John Hurdis Award – Outstanding Volunteer
Jean Grenier Appreciation Award
Gagné Family Award
Outstanding Administrator Award and SSC Certificates of Merit
René Marleau Official of the Year
Officials Award of Excellence
Male and Female Coach of the Year
Coaches Awards of Excellence
SSC Hall of Fame
