Culture change to safer sport starting slowly for Canada’s Olympic athletes bound for Paris

After tearful and shocking testimonies on Parliament Hill, and the admission there is a safe-sport crisis in Canada, how safer are athletes from abuse and maltreatment heading into the Paris Games?

Canada’s high-performance sport system underwent a reckoning since athletes exited Beijing’s Winter Games two years ago.

Athletes spoke of current and historical instances of abuse — mental, verbal, physical and sexual — and fear of retribution for reporting it.

Members of Parliament heard athlete welfare took a back seat to the pursuit of medals.

The bloodletting isn’t over. After two parliamentary committees held safe-sport hearings, a Future of Sport in Canada Commission will delve into those issues again, despite persistent calls from many quarters for a national inquiry.

“There’s so much more work to be done, but I’d say it is safer,” said Canada’s Sports Minister Carla Qualtrough.

“The culture shift that we’ve all been calling for and working toward hasn’t happened yet. There’s more of a collective understanding that it’s needed.”

The 2024 Olympic Games officially start with Friday’s opening ceremony, although preliminary competition starts Wednesday. The Paralympic Games open Aug. 28 and close Sept. 8.

Some Canadian athletes who will be on the start line, on the blocks, and on the mat in Paris have felt a change in their environments.

‘I feel a lot more safe in the environment’

“I was under the reign of a very abusive coach last quad earlier on, and that was very hard on my mental and physical health,” said Olympic champion eights rower Avalon Wasteneys. “This quadrennial, I’ve had a lot of health concerns. I’ve felt far more supported than I ever have.

“I just feel a lot more safe in the environment, all the way from the support staff and our coaches, all the way down to the athletes themselves.

“That kind of safe-sport culture has trickled down into just how us athletes conduct ourselves too.”

But rugby player Olivia Apps says the system is “more reactive and than proactive” when it comes to safety and national sports organizations can do more to help athletes feel protected.

“Systemically, with NSOs, I don’t think there’s a lot in place right now to effectively and sustainably protect athletes in a long-term kind of way,” Apps said.

Since 2022, the federal government and Canadian Olympic Committee have spent roughly a combined $50 million on safe sport and on mechanisms such as the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner and a culture audit and assessment tool for national sports organizations.

The jury is still out on how top-down measures can change how people treat each other. Culture change also doesn’t happen quickly.

“The wheels are moving,” race walker Evan Dunfee said. “I’ve seen some progress. There’s still way more to be done. It’ll take multiple generations, probably, but we’re heading in the right direction if nothing else.”

Middle-distance runner Charles Philibert-Thiboutot, who is an athlete representative on Athletics Canada’s board, says change is in the air.

Canada earned 24 Olympic medals in 2021

“There is a tendency where the more old-school coaches who will put coaching performance above an athlete’s well-being, that’s on its way out,” he said.

“The coaches that are emerging now, that are getting more popular are those that definitely live by coaching rules that align more with safe sport.”

Canadian athletes won 24 medals, which was a record at a non-boycotted Summer Games, and seven gold in Tokyo in 2021.

COC chief executive officer David Shoemaker and Own The Podium CEO Anne Merklinger say wanting athletes to win medals and celebrating when they do is natural, but that can’t come at the expense of an athlete’s physical or emotional well-being.

“I still haven’t met a Canadian Olympian that doesn’t have a strong desire to win,” Shoemaker said.

“They all do. It’s incumbent on us to not put a single ounce of pressure to win on our athletes that they aren’t already putting on themselves.”

Canada’s mission staff in Paris includes three mental wellness specialists and over 50 safe-sport officers, Shoemaker said.

“Winning well” is the theme for Canada’s athletes in Paris, says Merklinger, whose organization OTP makes federal funding recommendations and provides technical expertise to national sports organizations.

“It’s about building a healthy culture of excellence where people come first,” Merklinger said.

“It’s about how they go about achieving success that we’re talking about more.

“If athletes don’t finish their athletic journeys as better people, then we haven’t succeeded.”