What more federal funding for athletes means for this Olympic hopeful

I myself personally have worked up to four jobs in the summer before just to make enough to do a sport in the chase after the dream. Hi, I’m Brett Hemelman. I’m a Team Canada canoe Sprint athlete from Bedford, Nova Scotia. I’ve been on the national team for five years and this is the first increase we’ve had to our athlete assistance program budgets since I’ve been a member of the team and everything has gone up substantially in prices, whether that’s gas, food, groceries, I believe it’s an increase of roughly around $300.00 a month. Approximately we’ve seen 18 to 20% raise. It is challenging and especially in a sport like canoe Sprint where we live in Canada and we have to travel a lot for our sport. We can’t train at our sport here in the winter time with everything frozen. So we have to spend large periods of time away from home, which has its own challenges, not just mentally being away from your family and friends, but also financially. This past winter I was training and a combination of Florida and California. California is where the national team in the first set of Olympic trials were this year. And especially being an athlete from the East Coast is very expensive. Not to get yourself over there, but between the the American dollar and. Other other financial challenges faced. Hi, my name is Christian Hall and I’m the head coach here at Mascot Aquatic Club in Halifax, NS, and I’m working with, among other athletes, Brett Hamilton, who’s trying to make the Olympic Games in 2024. You know, we have athletes who put their lives on hold a little bit to chase their Olympic and national team dreams. So any little bit helps their athletes who need to train three or four times a day up to 1213 times a week. And having to work another job or, you know, find another income outside of the AAP program is a significant challenge. So any increase really makes that easier for them to to only focus on. On their training, it would be all worth it if you you get to do that. Ultimate dream of racing for Canada on the biggest stage.