Money for MEDALS!

The Canadian Olympic Committee unveiled their new Athlete Excellence Fund on Monday which basically means, if you win a medal....you get money!! The breakdown is as follows

GOLD = $20,000
SILVER = $15,000
BRONZE = $10,000

This is some extremely exciting news for me and my crew as we are most certainly in a position to win a gold medal. Make no mistake about it.....this is not the driving factor or motivation for me as I was and have been committed to winning a gold medal long before this most recent performance fund had come to light. This fund is not only providing to Olympic performances in the Olympic year but also the 3 years prior. In years 1 & 2 of the cycle, top 5 finishers will receive a $5000 performance bonus and in year 3 you must finish top 4 in the world to qualify for the $5000 bonus. This means that I have qualified for the performance bonus of $5000 based on our victory at the World Championships in August. (I don't think I will be receiving it till the spring though....could kinda use it now....but whenever they are ready....so am I!!)

This has been a long time coming as many, many other countries have been rewarding their athletes for years. Apparently in Italy the bonus for gold is 250,000 Euro!!!! That is a huge amount of money but personally, I'm happy with what the COC has put together.

All in all, this is another big positive step towards providing money for athletes who perform. Our current assistant coach, was the coxswain in 1992 when we last won the gold medal in the Men's 8, actually had to pay for their own uniforms!!! We have come a long way towards providing for our amateur athletes and even after I am done rowing....whenever that is.....I will most certainly be an advocate for getting money into the hands of the athletes who perform. At the end of the day, I don't do it for the money. I love the sport and want to compete for my country at the highest possible level and I love it when Canada is on top. I get no more satisfaction than knowing that in the "night before the race meetings"....other countries are trying to figure out how to beat those Crazy Canadians!!!!

PS. I have listed 2 articles regarding this most recent development....both dated Nov 19, 2007