Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The opportunity to meet with you is very important for us at Own the Podium.
It's of enormous importance to Canada's athletes to know that the Government of Canada and you as the elected politicians care about how they perform. The mere fact that we're here in front of this important committee is a testament to the value that you place on high-performance sport in Canada, and the fact that we're having a post-mortem reinforces again just how much you care about Canada's athletes. On behalf of Own the Podium, let me say that we can't thank you enough for your support.
Let me acknowledge, as Marcel has, the important role that the Government of Canada played in high-performance sport going into London. The federal government is the single largest contributor to high-performance sport in Canada and has been for a number of years. That is the primary reason that Canada's athletes and coaches have enjoyed the successes they have on the world stage to date.
I'm going to focus on three main areas in my remarks. The first one is to look at how Canada performed relative to other countries in the world. The second one is a closer look at how sports targeted by Own the Podium performed. The final one is about some key findings and lessons learned going into 2016 and beyond.
How do we stack up as a nation against the rest of the world? As Marcel said, we finished with 18 medals, at 13th overall, two medals out of a tie for 11th place. Since 2004, there has been a positive trend in terms of our performance relative to that of the rest of the world. We placed 19th overall in 2004, 15th in 2008, and 13th in London. Certainly, that's a positive trend in terms of our overall performance.
There were three nations that were ahead of Canada in 2008 and placed behind us in London, and there was only one nation that was behind us in 2008 and passed us in London in 2012. That nation was the Netherlands; they actually won four more medals in London than they did in 2008.
Several nations had significant drops in their medal tally. We spend a lot of time as an organization looking at how other nations are performing and at what they're doing in terms of their investment strategies to try to win more medals. The most notable ones in terms of nations that fell behind were Australia, which dropped 11 medals, which is significant, from 2008. Cuba was down 10 medals, and France, Belarus, and Ukraine were all down seven medals.
Our performance objective, as Marcel mentioned, was to finish in the top 12 in 2012. We knew it was an ambitious, lofty target. While we were one place shy, we certainly held our own in, as I've described, an increasingly competitive environment. We also held our own in an environment where many nations are investing significant resources, both public sector and private sector resources, in high-performance sport. We really feel it was a significant performance for Canada.
Our investment in summer sport as a nation has been relatively short: for three years the Government of Canada has made incremental investments in summer sports specifically. It increased from $12 million to $36 million over the last three years. When we compare that to what happened going into Vancouver, we can see that the investment is relatively short. In Vancouver, it was a five-year investment of $11 million from the public sector, matched by $11 million from the private sector. In that three-year period of time, again, compared to the five-year period of time in terms of the investment in summer compared to winter, we're still doing reasonably well.
Importantly, we're also one of the few nations that invests in both winter and summer Olympic Games. Remarkably, we ranked seventh overall in total medals if you combine our summer and winter Olympic rankings.
The second area I'd like to address is an assessment of how sports that were targeted by Own the Podium performed in London. The core element of our investment approach is really focused on sports that have the potential to win one or more medals.
There were nine sports in this bracket that we focused on seriously. Of these nine sports, eight won medals. That's a pretty good success rate, from our perspective. Of the nine sports, five were targeted to win two or more medals, and four of those five sports did exactly that. They won two or more medals. Again, it's a terrific result in terms of our public and private investment.
There are eight sports in which Own the Podium's investment was one that we refer to as a higher strategic risk, or more of a strategic approach. They maybe don't have as much medal potential going into the games at the start of the quadrennial as the top two brackets I spoke of. Only two of those eight sports won medals, so we've learned that we need to be more cautious in taking those strategic risks, making those strategic investments, as we move towards Rio.
Own the Podium also invested in individual athletes. One of those three individual athlete investments delivered a medal. It's a relatively small financial investment, but it delivered one medal, which was very positive.
Own the Podium predicted 20 medals going into London, and 18 were won. That equals a 90% conversion rate from our organization's perspective.
There are some important observations to share with you that tell a story over and above the performance metrics. There is the incredible accomplishment of the women's soccer team, the first medal in summer team sports in 76 years. That's a long wait for a summer team sport medal. The impact of that bronze medal on Canada was profound on all Canadians, in much the same way as the impact of Vancouver's performance in 2010.
More Canadians participate in soccer than in any other sport in the nation. Virtually every community in our great country participates in soccer. The medal won by these female athletes was a bronze medal, but it had a gold lining. Every member of that team serves as a role model and a heroine for our communities across our country.
Swimming and canoeing won three medals each. That was a terrific performance. That's six medals, a third of our total medal tally, so great gains were made in those two sports.
Canada won medals in 11 sports. That's the greatest number of sports we've won medals in since 2000 in Sydney. It's up one from 2008, when we won medals in 10 sports. These are all very positive trends. The Government of Canada two years ago made a deliberate, specific investment in a longer term strategy for summer team sports, trying to be more successful in our team sport approach. It's only been invested in for two years, but we saw some initial dividends, including a great performance from the women's basketball team, which finished eighth.
These are some of the good news stories. Of course, there were also some misfortunes, which every competitive, high-performance sport environment brings with it. I'd like to share a couple of those so that you understand just how fragile and vulnerable the high-performance sport world is for athletes and coaches. It's something that all of us as witnesses live, eat, and breathe every day, 24/7, 365 days a year.
These misfortunes begin with a great horse named Hickstead. I'm sure all of you know Hickstead's tragic story. He passed away just over a year ago. That tragic death resulted in the loss of two potential medals for the Canadian summer Olympic team.
We all lived the unfortunate story of Jared Connaughton and the 4 x 100 metre relay team. For a moment there, he and his teammates and the entire nation, and everyone in London were on their feet, knowing that we had surpassed our medal tally from Beijing, which was significant. It was so unfortunate that this happened.
The final one was a very controversial judging decision for a young boxer from Atlantic Canada who everyone felt had won the fight, but at the end of the day it didn't go his way.
Misfortune comes with sport, and it can seldom be controlled. That said, I think there were some sports that may have underperformed in our assessment. As an organization, our standards are pretty high, and underperformance is not good enough. We are working very closely with those sports to identify what went well and what didn't. We are learning from our mistakes. We believe the top 12 target was attainable, even though it was ambitious and lofty. Our present assessment is that, with a few more successes, we would have made the top 12. As an organization, we're never going to be satisfied if we even think there was one medal left on the table. That's our job, and that's what you, as the Government of Canada, and our funding partners, have entrusted us to be accountable for. At this very moment, our technical staff are in the midst of meeting with each and every summer targeted sport to determine what shifts they need to make going into Rio.
The third and final area I'd like to look at is the key findings and lessons learned for 2016 and beyond.
First and foremost, we need to place a much greater focus on building a deeper pool of podium potential athletes. Canada's athletes have ranked in the top five and top eight, and have really flatlined since 1996. In order to not be as vulnerable and fragile, we need to develop a much deeper pool.
That means we need to look at the system of high-performance sport across the country and work with all of our partners, the Canadian sports institutes, the Canadian sports centres, provinces and territories, to really strengthen that system going forward.
We will be launching a national talent identification and development framework that will look closely at how we identify the next generation’s athletes and ensure that they're in the best environments possible.
As an organization, we need to continue to make some very proactive and early interventions. We made a few of those going into London and they were very successful. There were a couple that we could have made and been a little more aggressive on, but we didn't and it probably cost us a couple of medals.
We also anticipate a greater degree of targeting of sports going forward. When we look at the profile of other nations that are very successful in the summer Olympic Games, winning more sports, more medals from a smaller number of sports, what we call multiple medal sports, where they win three or more medals, is certainly a key strategy.
Marcel mentioned the important role of the coach and technical leaders. Recruiting, retaining, and developing the best coaches in the world continues to be a high priority. Without great coaches, we aren't successful in developing podium potential athletes.
We must increase the accountability measures for the investment both from Own the Podium to sports and from Own the Podium to our funding partners. That's top of mind within our organization each and every day.
Finally, the latest research indicates that winning medals in sport is important to Canada and to Canadians. A whole new generation of heroes emerged from London, and we have been able to celebrate those with the great work of the Canadian Olympic Committee each and every day since then. We will continue to celebrate those great heroes.
There's a renewed culture of winning and of excellence in high-performance sport in Canada, and it really maintains the momentum that was established in Vancouver. With each medallist crowned, we need to work with these heroes to go back to their communities and reinstate the importance of sport and physical activity, of living a healthy lifestyle, of building communities. We don't talk enough about what that really means and the value of winning medals to Canada.
Canadian children need Olympic heroes and positive role models whom they can emulate and aspire to be like. Success in high-performance sport truly does build communities. It develops our future leaders, builds civic pride, and instills a belief that we can win, that it's okay to win, and we will win.
OTP became a not-for-profit organization in March, 2012, and it was a very important occasion for our organization. We continue to be a model that is highly regarded around the world and within other sectors in Canada.
On behalf of all of Canada's athletes and coaches, I'd like to thank you once again for the tremendous support you have provided in our quest to help more Canadian athletes win more medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Knowing that you care, that you believe in them, and that you support these athletes in their pursuits means a great deal to them as Canada's leading athletes. Knowing that they have an entire government and a country behind them can truly make a difference in their performance longer-term.
Thanks so much.