Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee.
We are pleased to be back here one year later. We had 17 incredible days in London, and here is an overview of what we saw there.
Let's start with a short video.
[Video Presentation]
This only begins to capture the energy, excitement, and pride of our team. Congratulations to Sebastian Coe, who was the CEO of the organizing committee, LOGOC, for having delivered fantastic games. Congratulations to the people living in London and to all the people living in Great Britain.
We saw with our own eyes, and our athletes told us, that there were excellent venues. The security was first rate. There was a very welcoming atmosphere by Londoners. Even traffic was acceptable.
The games were a real success with respect to the team's performance. We knew that what we hoped to achieve in the standings—our goal was to come in twelfth—was very ambitious and that it was not going to be easy. Our philosophy was to have ambitious goals, and that will not change.
Canada came in tied for 13th with 18 medals, which was two medals short of our goal of being in the top 12. With two more, we would have finished 11th. That shows you how tight it was.
Our athletes performed as expected, considering that they won 17 medals at the world championships just prior to London.
In London, all 279 athletes, 94 coaches, and the support personnel gave everything they had. The team had over 600 Canadian team members and over 100 volunteers, for a total of 700 people. The team showed the best of who we are as Canadians. They have earned the respect of all Canadians.
In fact, I am certain—and you will understand when I say this—that the real test for the team was not in how they reacted to victory, but rather to defeat. In other words, the results and medals aren't all that counts.
There is a much more than that in the Olympics.
Our athletes gave us so many memorable moments. We were on a roller coaster of emotions, for instance, in the heartbreaking women's soccer game against the U.S., and then the nail-biting bronze medal game against France, which resulted in Canada's first summer team medal since 1936, the first in 76 years. Of course, Canada's golden girl, Rosie MacLennan, delivered an amazing performance with a gold medal finish on the trampoline.
Jennifer Abel and Émilie Heymans, these extraordinary divers, gave Canada its first medal early on in the games. And Antoine Valois-Fortier is the first Canadian judoka to have won a medal in his category. He won silver. His coach, Nicolas Gill, did the same in 1992. I could go on at length telling you about these memorable moments.
With regard to our team mission, they are the team behind the team, and they were critical to the success. That includes our amazing chef de mission, Mark Tewksbury, and assistant chef de mission, Sylvie Bernier.
The mission team made sure the athletes had everything they needed, be it in the village, at the performance centre or outside the village, so that they would perform well.
Canada Olympic House was a true home away from home for athletes' families. What a success. An average of 1,200 people came through the doors every day.
Believe it or not, 19,000 people—parents, friends, sponsors and government representatives—visited the house during the games.
These families were well taken care of, because it is crucial for the athletes to focus on their performance. We see it now as a tool for Canada to help the athletes perform better.
The athletes and their families, as well as our partners and the media, told us that it was the best Olympic house ever.
It was the best Canada Olympic House ever according to everyone. Many national and international guests, including Prince Harry, government representatives, the CEO of the NSF, and such sponsors and sport partners as George Cope, the CEO of Bell, and Gordon Nixon, the CEO of RBC, all experienced Canadian hospitality at its best at Canada Olympic House.
Truly, this team was Canada's team.
We knew that Canadians were going to encourage us and be near us.
According to Canada's official Olympic network, CTV, 31.9 million Canadians watched coverage of the London games. That's quite remarkable.
Since the Olympic Games, the Canadian Olympic Committee hasn't stopped working for athletes and coaches. We promised our athletes that we would tell their stories 365 days a year, and we are. Since the games, we have had the Celebration of Excellence, which you heard about, in 2012, which included the famous heroes tour to Ottawa and Toronto. We visited three hospitals, 65 schools, and a Ronald McDonald House. We visited Parliament, where the Prime Minister of Canada gave Diamond Jubilee medals to the athletes, and we had a great lunch with members of Parliament. Then we took the train from Ottawa to Toronto.
In Toronto we had the Post Olympic Excellence Series, which is a conference for athletes to discuss their careers after sports. It was a great success.
Then there was the famous parade. Thousands and thousands of people from Toronto stood along the streets to applaud our athletes. It ended at Maple Leaf Square with 4,000 students. It was really amazing to see that. The famous gala was the same night, which was at the Air Canada Centre. The induction gala raised over $3 million net for the Canadian Olympic Foundation. It was a great and unforgettable night. Inductees, London 2012 athletes and coaches were at the heart of the evening and the event.
What does all this mean for the Canadian Olympic Committee and for all Canadians? It means that sport is important to this country and an asset to society. We have to remember, and we do that every day, and remind people that sport is the solution to many of our societal challenges.
For Canadians and the Canadian Olympic Committee, this means that, increasingly, people understand that sport has all the assets to solve problems in our society and that we can count on sport as a very important solution.
There is so much that sport can do for our country beyond excitement and pride.
First, it delivers economic, health, and social benefits in all communities.
Second, for Canadian athletes, sport is an asset for our society. Competing against the best in the world is crucial for our athletes; it is the opportunity to be in the Olympics, to really compete against the best, and to be ready for the great events. At the same time, they give so much visibility to our country.
Third, I would say the role model part is huge for the youth of our country, the youth who leave school too early, who have problems with drugs, or problems with alcohol.
It's something we hear often, that the athletes are role models for young Canadians. We saw it in London, and we will continue to see it in the future.
What about coaching? Coaching is the crucial part of the success of the athletes. It's absolutely essential. Coaching should be absolutely our priority. Great coaching means great athletes, which leads to great performances. We have to revitalize that function. That function is not well known, not well promoted, and we have to do that job to make sure that we have the best coaches, that we recognize them, that we value their job, and especially that we keep them in the country.
I would like to thank the federal government, and Mr. Harper personally for the investment to date. You are the one funding partner for sport in Canada. We thank you for the $64 million to Own the Podium, OTP, and the approximately $200 million for high-performance sport.
Thank you for continuing to provide funding despite the austerity measures in place. We would particularly like to thank the Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Sport, Bal Gosal.
Through your investment, the message is that the Government of Canada values sport, values athletes, and values excellence.
You are not alone. The private sector also sees the value in sport, in athletes, and in winning. That's why at the Canadian Olympic Committee we line up corporate Canada to do its share in that investment with the Government of Canada to make sure that we improve our capacity of winning, getting medals, and putting more athletes on the podium.
Through our private sector partnership, as you heard last week, we have announced an almost $100 million investment in high-performance sport over the next four years, which is a record.
We're talking about $100 million thanks to our partnerships with the private sector, and that was announced earlier this week. This $100 million will be invested in high performance for the next four years to guarantee our athletes financial support that will help them improve.
This is close to double the COC overall investment in sport. Our athletes are not standing still and neither are we, as you can see. Our summer athletes are already preparing for Rio 2016. Our winter athletes are just thirteen and a half months away from performing at their best in Sochi. They are ready.
We have already started preparing for Rio, and we are finalizing preparations for Sochi.
This is not to mention preparing for our home Pan Am Games in Toronto in 2015.
These games will be held at home. So we need to be proud of that and be a great success so we can convince the officials to bring other events to Canada in the future.
I am confident that for our athletes, coaches, and Sport Canada, the best is yet to come.
I am convinced that the future is very promising for our athletes, our coaches and everyone who works in sport in Canada.
Thank you for your attention and for giving us the opportunity to speak to you. I hope you have learned a little bit about what we did in London.