Does Canadian Weightlifting get a fair shake from the Canadian Government?
I think not. From a CBC report about the “own the podium funding“, “Canada’s rowing teams received the largest investment at $16.1 million from 2009 to 2013. In London, Canada’s men’s and women’s rowing teams captured two silver medals. By comparison, the weightlifting program received a modest $180,000. And to add insult the current year 2012/2013 funding for weightlifting is being reduced from $50,000 to $30,000 .
A Canadian politician or government bureaucrat can probably spend these amounts in their yearly expense account. It only gets worse when you read the paltry amounts that the Canadian government awards for Olympic medals, Canadian Olympic medalists receive $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. Assuming a Canadian athlete works a 40 hr work week training, that gold medal works out to be worth about $2.50/hr over the 4 yr Olympic cycle. Even that goes from bad to worse, its taxable. Welcome to Canada.