Alberta needs to spend more on elite athletes, experts say

Quebec's impressive showing at the Olympics has some Albertans calling for more financial support of elite home-grown athletes earlier in their development.

"Where we're behind other provinces in particular British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec is our investment in athletes and coaches and the programming for those young athletes to get better, to move them up the high performance system," saidDale Henwood,president of the Canadian Sport Institute, which trains high performance athletes in Calgary.

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"We just need to provide more and better support for those athletes at a younger age."

Quebec athletes have won the lion's share of Canada's Olympic medals in Sochi.Only one Alberta athletehas wona medal so far --KaetlynOsmond, who trains inEdmonton, was part of Team Canada's silver medal win inteam figure skating on Sunday.

Frank Ammar's daughter,Amanda Ammar, across-country skierat her second Olympics, is one of more than 50- athletes from Alberta.The28-year-old is largely self trained and financed, he said.

"It is an incredible feat because she did it on her own," Ammar said."Ithink they need to cough up some money."

This morning Amanda Ammarfinished in 55th place in the 10K classic, a similar result she had inSaturday's15K skiathalon.

In the past decade Alberta invested $100 millionin athletic trainingfacilities, but it's a different story for funding theathletes themselves.

The Canadian Sport Institute received $160,000from the province last year, Henwood said.

At the same time itsQuebec counterpart received$2.5 million.

While both provinces spend millions more, it's an example of the disparity between the two provinces, he said.

After consultations last fall, Albertais re-writing its 10-year sports plan.

"I want to make sure through the renewal of our sports system we have the absolute best system for developing athletes," said recreation ministerRichard Starke.