Canadian Olympic Committee Declares It's Ready For Rio

(ATR) The Canadian Olympic Committee’s CEO says the team of 315 athletes, plus coaches, support staff and volunteers, is ready for Rio 2016 and aiming for a top 12 finish in medal standings.

"We have confidence that the Rio 2016 organizing committee will deliver the games on time and in venues that will meet olympic standards," Chris Overholt told reporters in a July 13 conference call. "While we acknowledge that Rio is dealing with some tough issues, we know the organizing committee is working extremely hard to resolve this."

He said the COC has worked closely with Canadian government officials and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, whose officers have accompanied the COC on site visits to Brazil. Athletes have been briefed on health and security matters and will receive an update within 24 hours of arrival in Rio, he said.

Overholt said Rio’s experience hosting big events, from the 2007 Pan Am Games to the 2014 World Cup, and the 85,000-strong security force are cause for confidence.

"We’ve undertaken our planning for these Games with an abundance of caution, we’ve been very deliberate in our work," he said. "We rely heavily on the experts we have around the world."

As for the slow pre-Games activation by IOC and COC sponsors in Canada, which may be related to the various controversies surrounding Rio, Overholt said "we don’t see it the same way. Our partners are very engaged right now in everything we’re doing.

"Our partners are activating at record levels in this country and we couldn’t be more pleased."

Rio-themed Coca-Cola packaging and General Mills cereal Cheerios, with special packaging emphasizing Rio in the brand name, did not become widely available until July. McDonald’s Coca-Cola drink cups have been branded for an unrelated Spotify promotion.

The Royal Canadian Mint waited until Canada Day on July 1 to unveil the 2016 edition of the "lucky loonie" $1 coin, a tradition since Salt Lake 2002 when Canadian ice technicians placed coins beneath the playing surface before Canada won its first hockey gold medal in 50 years.

Official bank RBC, official gas station Petro Canada and sporting goods retailer Sport Chek are in various stages of activation. HBC unveiled its Team Canada apparel and replicas on April 13. An ad in a late June flyer featured the apparel on the cover and on an inside page, but omitted specific mention of Rio.

Neither Overholt nor Anne Merklinger, CEO of the COC’s high performance funding partner Own the Podium, would comment specifically on what their organizations are budgeting to spend in August in Rio.

"That wouldn’t be a number that I would be sharing at all," Overholt said. "We think of our business in four year quadrennial periods."

COC is targeting a top 12 finish in the Rio 2016 medal standings with at least 19 medals. That would be one better than London 2012, where Canada took home only one gold in women’s trampoline.

Merklinger told reporters that her public-financed high performance funding outfit identified gaps from London that it has filled on the road to Rio. A shallow pool of medal contenders and deficiencies in coaching and technical support have been dealt with, she said.

Own the Podium, she said, has broadened its approach to look ahead as much as eight years. As for Rio, podium potential athletes have made trips to acclimatize themselves to the city, culture and the venues.

She said Canada is expecting medals from athletics, cycling and women’s wrestling. Additionally, the COC has qualified five summer team sports, with women’s rugby sevens the highest hope for a medal. Merklinger said the organization has reassessed some sports in the last four months that emerged with new evidence of medal hopes, such as golf, tennis, beach volleyball and boxing.

"We will measure total medals, we will assess every performance in Rio both top 5, top 8, those athletes that are tracking that have evidence of a medal for 2020 and 2024," she said. "Every Olympic games is the ultimate test for Own the Podium as well. The lessons learned are critical for our organization, we are always looking how we can improve."

Written by Bob Mackin

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