Support Canadian athletes aiming for Gold at the 2010 Winter Games

"Canadians now have the opportunity to impact the performance of our athletes by contributing to the Own the Podium (OTP) campaign and crediting themselves with helping our athletes reach the podium in 2010," says Veronica Brenner, Olympian and OTP project manager for the Vancouver area.

Veronica Brenner knows how important Canadian support is for athletes — the retired freestyle skier is an Olympic silver medalist at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, a two-time Olympian, and has a total of 24 World Cup podium finishes, including 11 gold medals.

The Own the Podium 2010 program was launched in 2005. This technical sports initiative is designed to help Canada’s winter athletes win the most number of medals at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and finish among the top three countries at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

This $110 million initiative is supported by the Government of Canada, all Canadian provinces and territories, the 13 national winter sports federations, Olympic partners and Canadian businesses, as well as the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).

OTP launches its campaign

The 2010 Winter Games are less than a year away. As part of the next phase of the OTP initiative, a national campaign is being launched to encourage Canadians to contribute to the success of athletes by making an individual donation of $20.10, $200.10, or $2,010.00 for a group or corporations. Donations can be made online at the Canadian Olympic Foundation website.

People who donate will receive a personalized “thank you” e-mail from Nathalie Lambert, chef de mission for the Canadian Team for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

"I feel that the campaign is much more than just an opportunity to raise money for the athletes. It’s a chance for Canadians to take part in our athletes’ success in 2010," Veronica Brenner continues. "The success of the campaign will prove that Canadians believe in their athletes and the values they represent: perseverance and the desire to give it their all. The athletes will become more and more confident as the people of this country show their support for them."

The OTP effort

Since 2005, OTP has been providing expertise and leadership to national sports organizations in charge of overseeing medal hopefuls in 2010. OTP provides athletes, coaches and support staff with additional resources and elite sport programs to enable them to excel on the international stage.

Essentially, OTP provides support to athletes so that they can train, and travel to and take part in competitions. Additionally, OTP helps athletes in areas such as sports psychology, sports medicine, equipment and technology, as well as coaching development.

Through research programs such as Top Secret, OTP enables sport technicians and scientists to develop state-of-the-art technology for each winter sport. For example, the Whistler Bomber — a four-man bobsleigh designed by a "Mr. X" in Calgary, in collaboration with Bombardier — was recently used by Olympic gold medallist Pierre Lueders during the World Cup events. Work completed under the Top Secret program will be featured in 2010.

OTP has enabled Canadian teams to travel overseas to compete and has provided essential athlete training opportunities at 2010 Winter Games venues. The OTP initiative has also provided laptops and cameras for athletes to study sports techniques and analyze data from training sessions and competitions.

Despite the Olympic success of Canadian athletes abroad, none has won gold at an Olympic Games in Canada, neither at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games nor at the Calgary 1988 Winter Games.

Help Canadian athletes achieve their goal of winning the most number of medals when the world comes to Vancouver in 2010!

Donate today $20.10 at olympicfoundation.ca

Learn more about OTP.