Posted: September 7, 2004

Olympics: Canadian Olympic Excellence Fund Comes to the National Art Gallery September 22nd

Michael Burgess will host a Canadian Olympic Excellence Fund event at the National Art Gallery on Wednesday September 22nd called Gold Medal Plates. A minimum of 80% of the funds raised for this national event will fund the Athlete Excellence Fund which will help our Canadian Olympians have much needed funds to draw upon leading into the next few Olympic cycles.

The event features 10 of the best chefs in the Ottawa area, partnered with Olympic athletes preparing unique dishes for this specific event. There will also be a large selection of Canadian wines to accompany the meals and then there will be special live entertainment afterwards and an opportunity to mix and meet a number of Olympic athletes both present and past.

The Canadian Olympic Excellence Fund is a new COC funding program that was created in 2002 to provide incremental funding to support athletes with the best potential for international success. The Fund supports high performance athletes, coaches, national sport federations and the six Canadian Sport Centres.

The Excellence Fund is the only fund of its kind in Canada that specifically rewards potential sport success and provides direct financial assistance to high performance athletes and coaches.

Recipients of the fund are determined through a comprehensive Sport Review Process in which a committee of sport technical representatives meets with each National Sport Federation to identify athletes, teams, coaches and programs with the highest potential for success at future Olympic and Pan American Games.

For 2003-2004, the Excellence Fund will provide over $9 million in new incremental funding to support athletes preparing for the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and the Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006. Approximately half the funding will be distributed in 2003 and the remainder in 2004, with 2004 funding being contingent on 2003 performance benchmarks.

Athletes training for upcoming Olympic Games and ranked in the Top 5 in the world will receive $5,000 annually based on their previous performance results.

Ticket information visit the website at: http://www.goldmedalplates.com.

Events have already or will be held in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Halifax.