Olympic lessons help to support the next generation of athletes

Jeff Powell, executive director of the Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba (CSCM), looks back on his time at the Athens 2004 Olympics as a mixed experience. As a world champion rower his Olympic experience was also marked by a disappointing result for Canada’s men’s eight team. He says he wrestled for a long time with not having achieved the results he’d hoped for.

Powell says the Canadian’s eight men’s team underperformed during the Athens 2004 Olympics after coming off two world championship wins in 2002 and 2003. The performance left a sour mark on his time at the games.

“The flip side is it was a fantastic experience and allowed me to learn about who I am and what I can accomplish, which is pretty valuable to me and probably not something I would have gotten in any other way,” he says.

Powell says that, as his career transitioned to coaching and his current role with CSCM, he resolved to do everything he could to keep athletes from experiencing the struggles he felt after the Olympics.

The CSCM started in 1999 as a legacy of the 1999 Pan American Games and has been working to develop high-level Manitoban athletes since. The organization provides prospective Olympians, Paralympians and athletes with proper strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental performance, and sports medicine services that complement the technical support they receive from their coaches.

“You have a coach who teaches you everything you need on the court. We are here for everything outside of it,” says Powell.

While the role of the CSCM is less directly involved in dictating the training environment of an athlete, Powell says they do their best to support coaches in finding a positive direction forward for athletes.

For the 400 Canadian athletes who have been or are going to Paris to compete, Powell says he hopes they leave competition day with a performance they feel good about.

“Whatever it is. I hope that they feel that on the day they were able to perform in a way that properly reflects all the training, effort and time they’ve spent in their sport,” he says.

After the Olympics and Paralympics are over, Powell says he hopes changemakers, elected officials and community leaders conitune to pay attention to the real impact sports and recreation can have in the public sphere.

“I’d love the narrative to change a little bit, seeing sport not as something additional but something positively impacting other social goals like education, health and justice,” says Powell.

The Olympic Games closed on Sunday, Aug. 11 with Canada bringing home 27 medals, including two for Manitobans Abby Dent (silver, women’s eights rowing) and Skylar Park (bronze, women’s 57kg Tae Kwon Do).

The Paralympic Games opens Wednesday, Aug. 28, with two Manitoban athletes competing: Leanne Taylor in the para-triathlon on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, 1:15 a.m. (CT) and Bethany Johnson in wheelchair basketball, which begins on Thursday, Aug. 29, at 11:15 a.m. (CT). Bisons women’s basketball head coach Michele Sung is coaching the women’s wheelchair basketball team.

Want to watch the Olympics on campus?

You’re invited to the Paris 2024 Viewing Lounge in the Active Living Centre Agora!

Presented by the Canadian Centre for Sport Manitoba and the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, come watch the CBC coverage on a big screen, every day from the Opening Ceremonies (Wednesday, August. 28 at 1:00 p.m.) to the Closing Ceremonies (Sunday, Sept. 8 at 1:00 p.m.). We’ll be showing events featuring Manitoban competitors and Canadian teams completing this August and September.

Can’t make it to the Agora? Tune into CBC Gem for full coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 from Wednesday, August. 28 Sunday, Sept. 8.

Connor Boyd