Surfing will make its Olympic debut in 2020, but Canada’s athletes might not shine as brightly as they could without funding support from their federal government.
“Canadian surfing athletes are in real danger of being left behind the rest of the world. If we don’t qualify for 2020, catching up for 2024 is going to be near impossible,” said Surf Canada president Dom Domic. “Canada is currently world ranked number 11 and there are dozens of hungry and well funded countries below us targeting Canada. It truly is now or never.”
Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns told the Westerly News he was excited to hear surfing would be part of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, but he’s sounding the alarm on Ottawa’s lack of financial support to Surf Canada.
He said Canada typically funds its Olympic sports, but Surf Canada isn’t scheduled to receive any funding until too late in the game to be helpful.
“They wouldn’t probably see any money until the end of 2019 or early 2020,” he said.
“With the Olympics taking place in 2020, it would mean that Canada and our surf program wouldn’t have the necessary funds to help support our athletes to get to international competitions or get the coaching and the training they deserve and they need to stay competitive.”
He said he has reached out to Canada’s Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities Carla Qualtrough and urged her to come up with a way to fast track Olympic funding to Surf Canada.
“The timing is very important,” he said. “We’ve got international competitions coming up this fall and we want to make sure that our athletes are present…To do that we need Ottawa to contribute.”
He said surfing is rising in popularity and it’s the perfect time to invest in the country’s surfers.
“We’ve got some tremendous young talent,” he said. “We have a great opportunity right now to empower these young individuals and they will be a great face for Canada.”
He added the West Coast is packed with solid athletes who could become prime role models for a growing contingent of young surfers.
“They’re role models for health, determination, success, and they bring forward a lot of attributes that we want to see in our society and in our children,” he said.
“It’s important that we promote our healthy leaders in our country. At the same time, we need to support them. For many of our athletes, it’s always a challenge, between work and school and whatnot, to be able to stay at an elite level and, if we don’t have elite athletes, we don’t see Canadians as the face of sport internationally and kids don’t believe that they could be at that level.”
He added any opportunity to motivate young Canadians to get outdoors and connect with their environment should be seized.
“As a Vancouver Islander, I see this as a positive opportunity to engage and inspire youth while we get to showcase Canada’s world class beaches and athletes,” he said. “I raised my family in Tofino and I witnessed first-hand the positive attributes of surfing. It’s healthy, affordable and, most importantly, it has the unique ability to connect people to place.”