Athletes with Disabilities / Les athlètes ayant un handicap

As the 100,000 Canadian Sport for Life Champions campaign continues we are looking at new ways to inspire individuals to take action in their community. At this year's CS4L National Summit we will be launching the CS4L Messenger Program. The Messenger Program involves Champions, such as yourself, presenting to individuals, organizations or groups in your community about Canadian Sport for Life.

At the Summit we will be hosting Messenger Training sessions, which will provide you with all the tools, tips and tricks on how to deliver effective presentations on CS4L and physical literacy.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a safe and happy holiday season. With the New Year rolling in we are less than a month away from the 2012 CS4L National Summit and the first ever World LTAD Symposium!

Remember, today is the last day to register and get the regular rate; don’t miss this opportunity! Today is also the last day to book your accommodation at the Hilton Lac-Leamy under the special Summit rates.

If you have already registered, don’t forget to log in to your registration account and choose your sessions to ensure availability.

We are pleased to announce the program for the 2012 Canadian Sport for Life Summit, February 1 – 2, 2012 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau-Ottawa.

This year we have made a few tweaks to the Summit format. These changes will provide you with even more opportunities to learn about CS4L and share your thoughts, experiences, and best practices.

I was recently invited to provide comments on a discussion paper with proposals for a new Canadian Sport Policy (CSP). As someone immersed in the values and vision of CS4L, I am very concerned about what I have read.

With confusing and often vague language, the discussion paper fails, in my view, to clearly articulate a unifying, encompassing vision for quality sport in Canada.  It also fails to leverage key initiatives occurring presently in Canadian sport, including but not exclusive to CS4L. 

The implementation of CS4L and LTAD is not without its naysayers. The question is whether or not the naysayers are actually getting their facts straight.

Brian Lilley, columnist and blogger for the Sun newspaper chain, has written a blog post that attacks LTAD and CS4L concepts around competition in the ranks of children’s sport. Mr. Lilley makes a number of inaccurate statements that have stirred readers, most notably that LTAD “attempts to make sure there is next to no competition for children under 12”.  

He could not be further from the truth.  

I have been actively involved in disability sport for the last 20 years, however its’ history is much longer. Parasport, began in Britain following World War II and internationally it slowly evolved from a focus on the specific disability and rehabilitation to sport. In the 1990s, National Sport Organizations (NSOs) were encouraged by the federal government to become inclusive by offering programs and services for elite athletes with disabilities. What did not happen is that in some cases this change was not mirrored at the Provincial / Territorial or community levels. A manifestation of this is perhaps the recognition that Canada has identified a top ten finish in the 2012 Paralympic Games as their goal. At prior Games Canada placed seventh overall in 2008 (Beijing), 3rd in 2004 (Athens), 3rd in 2000 (Sydney) and 7th in 1996 (Atlanta).  So while a top ten goal is significant it’s not where we want to be. We want to be #1 and we think we can. But we can’t do it alone.

We would like to personally welcome you to the new Canadian Sport for Life website and now the new CS4L Blog. Over the past year together we have all made some big leaps in the CS4L movement. We have had the opportunity, with the support of B2Ten to start building the movement from “the bottom up” with our Actif pour la Vie / Active for Life initiative, we have entered the next phase of the movement – Phase 3: implementation, and we now have refreshed our website to make it more user friendly and are entering the world of social media with our Twitter account, Facebook page and now the blog.

The CS4L Blog will be an area for CS4L Champions – you – to interact with and learn from the Leadership Team as we talk about the great work that is happening in Canada, and around the world, and delve into our areas of expertise and hot button topics.