TFTI article: What Price Skating Glory: Institutional Funding

[Sylvia]

https://twitter.com/twofortheice/status/884206376003792896

For skaters in Canada and the US, support via institutional funding is central -- and limited. Our longform look:

By Jacquelyn Thayer of Two For The Ice: http://www.twofortheice.com/price-skating-glory-part-2-institutional-funding/

Two for the Ice took its first look at athlete funding with the matter of prize money — funds distributed to skaters who rank highly at the ISU’s plum international events, from the Grand Prix to the championships. Now we’ll consider the more foundational base of institutional support — those funds provided by North America’s major national sporting bodies to ease the quite considerable burden of day-to-day training costs. That the sport’s own institutions provide financial support to athletes at many levels of achievement and age is an obvious boon but, like prize money, it can only stretch so far and so wide.

 

[Seerek]

From a Canadian perspective, there have been similar articles written recently on how Own the Podium can be both the start of either a virtuous and/or vicious cycle. Interestingly, Canada still won World Championship medals in Luge (Kim McRae), Skeleton (Elisabeth Vathje), Biathlon (team relay) and Cross-Country (Alex Harvey) in the Pyeongchang Olympic Cycle (2015-2017) despite their relatively lower funding allocation.

My take on it: Skating gets the short end of these funding models because of the fewer number of disciplines/available medals on hand.

Great Britain had also a huge debate over their funding program, as some summer sports post-Rio got their funding reduced to zero.