Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport

Well, the Sochi Olympics are now in the books and all of Canada is basking in the glow of our athletes’ successes. We set the bar very high back in 2010 in Vancouver and half way around the world four years later we strove to match or exceed that accomplishment. We fell just short by that measure, but by every other measure, our Canadian Olympic Team was hugely successful and as a proud Canadian, I salute all of our athletes for their efforts and accomplishments.

At the CCES, we are also proud of the role we played in our Olympic Team’s preparations for Sochi. Yes, our athletes trained hard, had the latest in nutritional science, the best coaching, equipment, sport psychologists, physios, medical staff and so on – but they also had state-of-the-art anti-doping preparation as well. We educated all of our Olympic athletes, including our men’s hockey team, on their rights and responsibilities under the World Anti-Doping Code. We tested all of our Olympic Team athletes at least once in the four months leading up to the Games, and we increasingly relied on intelligence to guide our testing – ensuring that we were testing athletes at the right time for the right substance. 

If success is 90% preparation, then as a country, we scored 100% in preparation.