CBC SPORTS ONLINE - Everyone at the Canadian Olympic Association's annual congress knew that there'd be no way of pleasing everyone, regardless of what formula was finally settled on to fund Canada's amateur sport federations, but small, struggling federations were the big losers in the COA's decision to reward results.

Following a lengthy debate that was actually initiated months before Friday's meeting, COA delegates voted to earmark a greater share of funding to athletes who are bona fide Olympic medal contenders, while in another controversial decision, the COA also moved to toughen its already stringent Olympic qualifying standards.

The new funding formula is intended to redress what many Canadian athletes, coaches and high-performance officials have long argued is a primary reason for elite Canadian athletes underachieving in Olympic competition: inadequate funding for training and competing relative to other countries.

But delegates from some of Canada's smaller, developing federations argue that it's really a form of reverse Robin Hood, stealing the already meagre funding of struggling sports and handing it over to sports that are already successful.

Under the new guidelines, 30 per cent of sport funding will be tied to Olympic and Pan-Am Games results; a gold medal will bring $45,000, with $40,000 for a silver, and so on, down to $10,000 for an eighth-place result.

If a federation wants its full share of the COA's annual funding of $9.5 million, it must also demonstrate that it has instituted a success-oriented plan with measurable standards and targets, and there must also be measurable progress from one year to the next.

"We need something that has accountability," said the Canadian Speed Skating Association's Jean Dupre, who helped draft the funding proposal. "We need to be able to recognize success and performance."

But what's a boon to a sport like speed skating, in which Canada is a world power, sounds more like a death knell for sports that are still trying to develop a strong presence in this country and produce world-class athletes.

Paul Collard of Biathlon Canada, for one, said his federation will now have to stroke $40,000 off its already tight budget and may be forced to close one of its two training facilities in Canada.

"They just took money from us and gave it to sports like hockey and speed skating," he said. "They took from a large number of smaller sports and gave it to the bigger ones."

If getting the best available training is now less feasible, the more difficult Olympic qualifying standards adopted by a narrow vote on Friday could discourage participation in the first place.

"I think that we're actually taking the dreams away from young Canadian athletes," said Ron Read of Ski Jumping Canada, a shoestring operation that has been rebuilding since the 1980s heyday of Horst Bulau, Steve Collins and Ron Richards, all of whom regularly finished in the top 10 of the World Cup circuit.

Even if they meet the international qualifying standards for the Olympics, Canadian athletes must now register at least a 12th-place finish in a qualifying event, up from the former minimum standard of 16th place.

"I think it's a very short-sighted motion," said Read. "Our athletes are looking at this saying 'We are so far away from this, why should I devote eight years of my life when the target is so hard to meet?'"

Being barred from sending athletes to the Olympics for the foreseeable future will only decrease the already low visibility of sports like ski jumping in Canada.

"We're talking about the No. 1 marketing opportunity. The funding behind it, the marketing behind it, your athletes, your sponsors. . . . You're just cutting out your whole foundation."

Collard argued that the new policy could actually undercut Canada's medal haul at the Winter Olympics, where 78 of the 230 medals currently on the slate are for Nordic skiing events, as opposed to a total of four for hockey and curling.

Beckie Scott of Vermilion, Alta., whose bronze medal at the Salt Lake Olympics was the first podium finish ever by a Canadian athlete in a Nordic Olympic event, pointed out that if the new arrangement had been in place years ago, she might never have received the support she needed to become a medallist.

It's been a long debate in Canadian amateur sport circles, especially when trying to account for the superior performance of a country like Australia in the Olympics: should the priority be grassroots participation or winning medals?

The COA's new CEO, Jim Thompson, made the case for Canada focusing its funding on sports where it excels, as opposed to sharing the wealth, such as it is, more broadly.

"In Canada, often we try to be something to everyone and often we fail to fulfil our immediate mission. Our resources will be more and more to directed to producing high-performance athletes.

"Hopefully, the end result is many gold medals," said Thompson.

Bob Steadward, an Edmonton resident who serves as a member of the International Olympic Committee, pointed out that Norway doesn't attempt to be competitive in all events, opting instead to focus on Nordic events, which have a huge following and which produce an awful lot of medals for a relatively small population.

"They are their cultural sports," said Steadward. "We don't have that kind of cultural heritage, yet, in our country because we've been trying to be too many things to all people all the time.

"There are certain sports that Canadians excel at and we should provide more opportunities for developing in those sports."

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