4. OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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4.1.2 INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
The athletes who represent Canada at Olympic / Paralympic Games and World Championships are not necessarily carded; similarly, holding a card from Sport Canada does not guarantee an athlete a place on the Canadian team at an international event. We therefore looked at the linguistic composition of the Canadian delegations at various international events.
The study Sport: The Way Ahead shows participation of Francophones among officials and athletes on Canadian teams at international games in the late 1980s and early 1990s:
| Calgary Winter Olympics, 1988 | 27% |
| Seoul Summer Olympics, 1982 | 23% |
| World Student Games, 1991 | 24% |
| Pan-American Games, 1991 | 21%10 |
The study does not give figures for Anglophones or for team members whose first official language is unknown, nor does it distinguish between athletes, coaches and officials.
The Canadian Olympic Association provided statistics for Canadian athletes at the two most recent Olympic games: the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. These statistics are based on information provided in athlete questionnaires and are assumed to refer to mother tongue.
|
| Anglophone | Francophone | Unknown | Total |
| Atlanta | 246 (80%) | 41 (13%) | 21 (7%) | 308 (100%) |
| Nagano | 104 (70%) | 41 (28%) | 3 (2%) | 148 (100%) |
The Atlanta Olympics are summer games, and as the statistics in Appendix 6.1 indicate, French speakers tend to participate in greater numbers in winter sports. Also, some team sports such as rugby and field hockey are dominated by Anglophones, and the large number of players on these teams influences overall participation figures. Nevertheless, this level of Francophone participation is very low: overall, French speakers made up 18 percent of the Canadian athlete contingent at the last two Olympic games, well below their presence in the general population.
