U of T student Rosannagh MacLennan’s surprise thirdplace finish at the 2007 World Trampoline Championships has earned a spot at the Olympics—for Canada. Olympic berths in trampoline are allotted to countries based on the team’s performance.
Though MacLennan (who has only cracked the top 10 at a major international competition once before) still has to compete at the Olympic trials, she is fl ying high. “We competed in the first fl ight, and didn’t have the best routines of our lives, so we left the gym and didn’t think we were going to get it,” she said.
Launching themselves to a height of eight metres, trampoline gymnasts perform a series of 10 twists or somersaults per routine. Though Canadians have won three Olympic medals in the event since its 2000 debut, trampoline remains a lesserknown sport—athletes have no corporate sponsors and little financial gain.
But this year the Canadian Olympic Committee is sweetening the pot. The COC’s new Athlete Excellence Fund, announced in November 2007, will award $20,000 for each Olympic gold medal, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze.
In the early days of the modern Olympics, athletes were forbidden to profit from sport and barred from receiving prize money or appearance fees. The International Olympic Committee abolished amateurism as a condition for eligibility in 1973, and sports have become more and more of a full-time, professional, commercial venture.
“You know, when I was your age, I raced all over the world, I was a household name in Canada,” said Bruce Kidd, dean of U of T’s phys ed and health faculty and a former Olympic runner who competed in the 1964 games. “But I also did a full load of courses in political science and economics. I was a scholarship student, and I also had a masthead position on The Varsity.” (Full disclosure: Kidd wrote for The Varsity from 1962-65, and covered his own track meets under a pseudonym.)
“If you look at many of the great athletes at U of T in the last 20 years, they’ve been full-time athletes and only part-time students.” MacLennan trains six days a week at the Skyriders club in Richmond Hill, logging an estimated 20 hours of practice per week. She is taking three classes this year and plans to spend five years in undergrad.
As an elite competitor, she qualifies for financial support under Canada’s carding system. Athletes within the carding system receive living and training allowances as well as tuition assistance. But the federal Athlete Assistance Program and Ontario’s lottery-funded Quest for Gold program only support top-16 finishers or those who have the potential to get there.
This approach has its drawbacks, argued Kidd. “Getting to carding is a very difficult process,” he said. “If you look at the class composition of our Olympic teams, most of the athletes are drawn from middle and upper classes, and the reason for that is that only those types of families can afford the developmental costs associated with playing a childhood sport.”
Kidd said barriers to training prevent talented athletes from reaching the highest levels of competition. “I mean, it’s a sad commentary on track and field today, but I still hold the Canadian junior record for 5,000 metres, and that’s after 45 years,” he said.
According to Kidd, Sport Canada still isn’t doing enough to support amateur athletes.
Kidd cited Australia as an example of Olympic enthusiasm: “The amateur Olympic sports in Australia are the most visible and celebrated sports, whereas in Canada, you’ve got professional ice hockey and the other masculine continental sports as garnering the greatest share of public attention.”
“The growth of the capitalist sports—and this links directly with the mass media—has marginalized Olympic sports.”
For her part, MacLennan also spoke of a need for improved programs and facilities: “The American trampolinists all live in their training centre. Their food is provided for them, their board is provided for them, they have a gym there that they have access to at all times. There are some sports in Canada that have this already, but for the less developed sports, it’s rare.”
“Sports like trampoline and the Paralympics just don’t get the attention the major sports get,” she said.
MacLennan is currently ranked second in Canada, behind her synchronized event partner Karen Cockburn, two-time Olympic medallist and reigning Canadian champion. Sarah Charles, also a U of T student, sits in third place. The Canadian team earned Olympic slots for two competitors and one alternate—if these three women hold on to their lead, they will represent Canada at the Beijing Games.
In the meantime, MacLennan is concentrating on the five major competitions that stand between her and the Olympic stadium. “I’m not in the sport for the honorarium, I’m not in it for money. It’s an added bonus if you get it, but I’m going to go out in the same way and let the results fall where they may.”
