North Bay Nugget from North Bay, Ontario, Canada • 37

SYDNEY OLYMPICS THE NORTH BAY NUOOET Saturday September 23 2000 It takes money to win medals Aussie investment paying off CP PHOTO Canadian Mark Boswell clears the bar duing high jump qualifying in Sydney Sydor cycles to fifth-place finish izations another $4 million to national sports centres $4 million in binding for athletes grants and $4 million to coaches Barney says another problem is that Canada tries to be good at too many sports a lot of countries do now is to not try and cover the whole water-front have teams or individuals in Barney says identify good athletes they cultivate the performances of those athletes in particular sjxirts In other words more specialized see Canada trying to have somebody in everything You sec the United Stall's doing that too but they have tremendous resources to pull it Basically Canada is stretching itself too thin can't lie all things to all people and do extraordinary Bill Warren president of the COA agrees always said about sport in Canada that there's enough money in the he told the Winnipeg Free Press just about reorganizing the system so that the money can be better put to use I really believe that think there is an inefficiency in the system With the same amount of money we have we should be able to do beiter" There's also the carrot at the end of the stick that seems to lift American and Australian athletes to their best performances The United States Olympic Committee pays an athlete $15000 US for a gold $12000 US for a silver $10000 US for a bronze and even $7500 US for a fourth-place finish Individual sport federations add to the bonus on occasion Swimming USA handed out an extra $50000 US to every gold medallist The Austaliuns aren't as generous but still try to motivate their athletes with medal bonuses They pay 15000 Australian dollars ($12950 Cdn) for a gold $7 (XX) ($6050 Cdn) for a silver and $5000 ($4300 Cdn) for a bronze An A-carded Canadian athlete w'hich means in most spoils that the competitor must be in the top half of the world rankings receives $1100 a month which is a raise from the $810 they were earning in recent years There are no money prizes for Canadian medal winners SYDNKY T) They say money cant buy happiness but it sure can win a few more medals at the Olympic Games Australia host of this year's Summer Olympics has been spending four times more money than Canada on amateur sport leading up to the Games and the proof is in the pudding The discrepancy was as high as 10-1 according to some estimates before an injection of money from the Canadian government Spending on athletes has increased :15 per cent over the last three years said Heritage Minister Sheila Copps Rut critics say that it was too little too late And oven Copps admits you balance that against what they've done in Australia it's not in the ball The Aussics have the medals to prove it After Day 7 Friday Australia stood third in the medal standings with 28: eight gold 11 silver and nine bronze Canada was 23rd with one gold one silver and two bronze despite having twice the population With Canada bidding to host the 2008 Summer Olympics the Australian approach and success 1 tears watching Copps said a successful bid would the whole country" Bob Barney of the International Centre for Olympic Studies blames a lack of government funding of amateur sport and bad planning for Canada's showing is a mountain compared to Canada in terms of what the government puts said Barney an American who teaches at the University of Western Ontario has put $16 billion (Australian or $13J1 billion Cdn) over the last 10 years into elite athletic performance dedicated themselves to making sure that they win a lot of medals at these Olympic Games" For example the Olympic Athlete Program an initiative worth 135 million Australian dollais ($116 million Cdn) over six years was introduced in July 1994 by the Australian federal government following Sydney's successful bid to host the Olympics The program aimed to develop Australia's elite athletes to their highest potential for the year 2000 Over the last three years the Canadian Olympic Association lias handed out $16 million to sports organ and Fullana'8 bike caught a rut and went down on the curve Fullana scrambled back onto the bike but she'd lost the lead for good as it turned out Pezzo led the rest of the way At the end of four laps Sydor was still fifth but she was 1 £087 behind the leader Sydor began racing competitively eight years ago She won the world championship in 1994 1995 and 1996 was fourth in 1997 third in 1998 and second in 1999 Softball squad loses 1-0 against China BLACKTOWN Australia (CP-AP) Canada dropped to 1-6 in the Olympic softball tournament after a 1-0 loss to China today Yan Fang had two hits and scored the only run as China raised its record to 5-2 Zhang Yanqing struck out nine and allowed just two hits as Canada joined Cuba (1-6) in failing to make the medal round ranked 21st Five laps of a rocky wooded hilly 81 -kilometre course on a farm 20 kilometres west of the city produced the medallists with more than 20000 lining the course After one lap Blatter led and Fullana was a close second Next came Pezzo Alison Dunlap of the United States Alla Epifanova of Russia and Sydor who was 27 seconds behind the leader After two laps Blatter and Fullana remained 1-2 Epifanova moved up to third followed by Pezzo Dunlap and Sydor who now was 55 seconds back of the leader Fullana passed Blatter on an incline early on the third lap and Sydor moved up to fifth place At the end of the third circuit it was Fullana Blatter Pezzo Epifanova and Sydor who had fallen a minute and 14 seconds behind the leader Fullana and Pezzo pulled away on the fourth lap On a rutted turn in woods Pezzo drew even with Fullana SYDNEY (CP) Paolo Pezzo of Italy remains the only woman to ever win the gold medal in Olympic women's mountain biking The 31 -year-old pro cyclist won the gruelling event in 1996 when it was added to the Olympic calendar and she did it again Satimluy Alison Sydor 34 of Vancouver the three-time world champion who won Olympic silver in 96 finished fifth this time two minutes and 54 seconds back of Pezzo who took only one hour 4924 seconds Barbara Blatter of Switzerland won silver and Margarita Fullana of Spain was left with bronze after losing the lead when she crashed on the third of the five laps totalling 405 kilometres Chrissy Redden of Campbellville Out was eight in while Victoria's Lesley Tomlinson was 19th in 2:00:4408 The 30 racers wore seeded into a starting grid according to their current world ranking Blatter was the No 1 seed and Sydor was No 2 Pezzo was OLYMPIC SCOREBOARD I dies round nuns hammar find hapMNcn-800 feral Bulbil prakmmanas BuMbd womens prakmmanes Cmidi vs Brad (630 sm) Beach udfeybdl mm Mnvfcnafc Boamg ncond round 51 kg 615 kg 91 kO Dmng omen's 1 Dmitri Fold hodisy mine pmfimmanes Great Bntam vs Canada (4 un) Gymnastci apparatus tail mm's floor ominS uadi mart 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