bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1986) — Spring/Summer 1986 // Printemps/Été 1986, p. 15
In the past few years Canada has made an impact in international sport, winning 44 medals in the Los Angeles Olympics. In the course of their rise to international success, Canadian athletes have become accustomed to advice and support from the Department of External Affairs both in Headquarters and abroad. Many members of many missions regularly go above and beyond the call of duty to help Canadian teams feel “at home” in strange countries, and in doing so, External contributes to the mental preparation that is essential to success on the field of competition.
In return, our athletes serve as the best representatives of goodwill that any country could wish, seldom failing to leave behind them a better image of Canada and Canadians than existed before they arrived
In 1988, Canada will host the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. These are among the foremost sporting events that the world has to offer, and their successful organization will reflect great credit, not only on the organizers and the people of Calgary, but on Canadians everywhere. In his recently published memoirs, Peter Ueberroth, who was President of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for 1984, referred to a working visit to the German Democratic Republic in the year of the Games. He wrote:
“We returned to East Berlin after the judo championships. While there, I thought it wise to visit the U.S. Embassy to advise the Ambassador of my meetings with the sports officials and of their plans to visit Los Angeles. So I made an appointment with him.
• After a short wait, I was told the Ambassador was busy giving dictation and couldn’t be bothered to see me. Over the years, LAOOC representatives had always been welcomed with great hospitality in foreign countries. Heads of State often made themselves available to us; top leaders were always generous with their time and help. But during my five and a half years with the organizing committee never once did an American Ambassador take time to see me.”
Now, the story of the relationship betwen the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and the Government of the United States of America is a long and unhappy one, and my acquaintances on both sides of that particular fence are still unable to speak of each other with anything but dislike and contempt. That that should have been part of the legacy of Los Angeles is an unhappy thing for sport in the United States, but it is aside from the point I wish to make, which is that we of the Foreign Service of Canada can be proud that in recent memory, no leader of Canadian sport has had reason or excuse to complain, in the terms used by Ueberroth, of his reception at a Canadian post abroad
Not only our senior Olympic officials, who now bear special endorsements in their passports, but our coaches, managers, and athletes are made to feel welcome and wanted within the resources that a post has at its command
I am leaving the department for private life atter 13 fascinating years in the International Sport position. I have seen us grow from the country that, in 1976, put on the poorest showing of any country that ever hosted the Olympics, to a new power in a field where the world can see and admire us. I am proud to think that my department has had a supporting role to play in that success. I am confident that even in the face of the new austerity, Canadian sport will continue to receive from the department the support that if richly deserves and can so well repay.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1986) — Spring/Summer 1986 // Printemps/Été 1986, p. 15. Read the rest of this issue →
