The Canadian Olympic Committee on Thursday said that it is "renewing its commitment to high-performance sport" by investing C$37M in funding "over the next four years through the Own The Podium program," according to Gregory Strong of the CP. The funding amount is "consistent with the amount the COC invested in the previous quadrennial." COC CEO Chris Overholt said, "We've made some investments along the way and ... as we've seen first-hand in Rio, those investments are working." The COC also announced it will commit C$16M in new funding for the "growth and development of the next generation of Olympians, an amount that will be matched by the federal government." As part of the new model, the COC will invest C$5M into a "new coaching enhancement program" and another C$5M to "strengthen the capacity and resources of the country's national sport federations." Also included in the new funding plans are C$1M for Game Plan, a program "designed to ease the athletes' transition into the workforce after they retire from competition," and C$2M for the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network. Canada won 22 medals at the Rio Games (CP, 10/27).
