COC Partners with Data Analytics Powerhouse SAS

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) announced an eight-year partnership with SAS Canada. This deal marks the COC’s first ever analytics partnership that will give the sport community the most advanced data technology available to help athletes reach the Olympic podium.

The COC is the first National Olympic Committee to form a long-term partnership with an analytics company and to leverage the power of data to give athletes and coaches an extra advantage in maximizing their performance outcomes.

Download photos from the partnership event

Through the use of its market leading analytics platform, SAS will help the COC and national sport federations use the wealth of data available to draw insights and project future scenarios in new innovative ways that will help them enhance the performance of the athletes and the sport system as a whole. The data generated will enable sport leaders and coaches to better allocate finite resources to yield the best results possible, identify the most promising athletes, and pinpoint the key factors that will enhance training programs. Ultimately the goal is to improve athlete performances at Games and help them win more medals.

By making its most innovative analytics platforms available to the COC and other national sport federations, SAS will help transform the COC into a data-driven organization equipped with fact-based decision making capabilities. This partnership will also lead to the formation of an analytics advisory council comprised of skilled data analysts and sports experts who will explore the best ways to use analytics to win more medals for Canada. Technologies such as SAS Visual Analytics and Data Modelling increase precision in decision making, talent identification and medal predictions. Invariably, it will help athletes succeed.

QUOTES:

"This one of its kind partnership is a game changer in high performance sport in Canada. SAS, as the world-leading analytics company, will provide the technology and expertise to promote data-driven decision making in order to boost athlete performances at future Games. We are thrilled to work with SAS to help our athletes win more medals."

Chris Overholt, CEO & Secretary General, COC

"SAS is excited to enter into this partnership with the COC and help Team Canada win more medals. Our work with the COC will bring Canada’s world-class Olympic athletes to a new level of training and performance potential by taking a data-driven approach leading up to, and throughout, future Olympic Games."

Cameron Dow, President of SAS Canada

"This is an opportunity for the Canadian sport community to take a leadership role in using analytics to track and improve performance. Volleyball Canada has made advances in this area over the past few years that are very interesting, but our sport would benefit greatly from the resources of a sophisticated analytics powerhouse. We are excited about this partnership and how it could help volleyball and other team sports identify competitive advantages."

Mark Eckert, President & CEO, Volleyball Canada

"OTP relies heavily on a data analytics program that has successfully helped drive podium performances at the Olympic and Paralympic Games for a select number of sports. This partnership with SAS builds on our existing program by extending the reach and resources available to Canada’s entire sport community."

Anne Merklinger, CEO, Own The Podium

For more information, please contact:

Cherry Ye

Program Manager, Media Relations

Canadian Olympic Committee

Tel: 416 324-4123

Mobile: 416 427-4341

Email: cye@olympic.ca

Ricky Landry

Manager, Corporate Communications

Canadian Olympic Committee

Tel: 514-861-3696

Mobile: 514-229-4833

Email: rlandry@olympic.ca

Suzanne Sprajcar Beldycki

Head of Communications

SAS Canada

Tel: 416-307-4634

Mobile: 416-575-8500

Email: Suzanne.sprajcar@sas.com

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