Even if you're matching strides with the best biathletes in the country, as Matt Neumann was this week racing at the senior national team trials in Canmore, the rewards of making it to the highest levels of competition in the sport are not what they might seem.
In European countries like the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Italy and France, World Cup biathletes are treated like rock stars. They draw comfortable salaries and have sponsors lined up waving cheques for athletes who endorse their products.
In Canada, where the Own The Podium budget for 2017-18 for Biathlon Canada has been totally cut - from $400,00 in 2015-16 and $480,000 in 2016-17, down to nothing - Canadian biathletes are heading into an Olympic year entirely dependent on corporate and private donations.
"In biathlon, or any other amateur sport, you don't do it for the money or the fame," said Neumann, a 28-year-old from Prince George who moved to Canmore eight years ago to chase his dream of becoming a World Cup biathlete.
"I have a lot of fun and train hard and that's why I do it, because I enjoy training."
Neumann raced Friday against Nathan Smith of Calgary, who three seasons ago became the first Canadian male biathlete to win a World Cup medal. That year (2014-15) Smith claimed silver in a sprint race in Finland then won World Cup gold in a pursuit race in Russia. The following year the Canadian men captured their first-ever relay medal, winning bronze, and Rosanna Crawford of Canmore had a breakthrough season on the women's side with several top-10 results. But last year Smith was sidelined most of the season and none of the rest of the World Cup team finished better than Crawford's 19th in an Olympic test event in PyeongChang, South Korea. With no World Cup medals or top-10s to carry the momentum, Own The Podium decided to pull the plug on its biathlon funding.
The good news for carded athletes eligible for Canada's Athlete Assistance Program is their monthly federal funding stipend increased 18 per cent this year and they are now paid as much as $1,775 per month. The bad news is with the cuts to Biathlon Canada's budget there was no money to pay for training camps to other countries. As a result, some athletes had to pay their own expenses to attend those camps. There are also concerns the federal government is not investing enough money in nordic sports to develop younger athletes to feed into the national programs and ultimately produce more Olympic medals.
