Own the Podium is grateful to the Government of Canada for its contribution and commitment to helping Canadian athletes achieve their goals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Government of Canada, through Sport Canada, is the single largest investor in Canada's amateur sport system contributing $66 million in enhanced excellence funding each year, supporting targeted Olympic and Paralympic winter and summer sports, team sports and next generation athletes and coaches. .
Financial support from the federal government enables winter and summer targeted athletes to realize their dreams of wearing the maple leaf for Canada.
Own the Podium (OTP) was created in 2005 with the goal of Canada finishing number one in the Olympic medal count at the 2010 Games. As a result, the Canadian flag was raised more times than ever before in Vancouver-Whistler.
Ensuring this success continued well beyond 2010, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and OTP signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between 2012-2020 to define roles, responsibilities and funding commitments in support of Canada’s quest to become a world leader in high-performance sport at the Olympic Games. This national partnership between the COC and OTP has had a significant impact on developing more medal-winning high performance programs for Canada.
The COC and OTP have extended their partnership through 2028, demonstrating the COC’s sustained commitment to the targeted excellence strategy in Canada. Investing over $15,000,000 per year, the COC’s investment delivers the critical resources Canada’s medal potential athletes and sports need and deserve in their quest to achieve excellence.
Own the Podium is a key partner of the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC). Several important technical initiatives are delivered by OTP with funds provided by the CPC. These include support for coaching professional development, hiring of technical staff, research and innovation projects and next generation athlete/coach support. The support provided by CPC to OTP and high performance sport initiatives approximates $1,500,000 /year.