OTTAWA—Canada’s high-performance athletes will continue to benefit from world-class sport technology intelligence in their quest for the Olympic and Paralympic Podium with the addition of Mike Christie to the post of high performance advisor, intelligence and performance analysis, Own the Podium announced on Wednesday.
Christie brings more than 25 years of national and international experience working within the Canadian Sport System, including five Olympic Winter Games and four Olympic Games. While employed with the Canadian Olympic Committee since 2003, Christie played a key role leading Canada’s performance technology strategy at the last three Olympics.
“The strategic investment in Performance Technology and integrated partnership between Own the Podium and the Canadian Olympic Committee provided a unique competitive advantage for Canada’s athletes contributing towards unprecedented podium success at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Christie. I’m very excited about this new role with OTP and look forward to building upon Canada’s continued podium success.”
"Mike played a critical role in supporting Canadian athletes and coaches seeking to find the fractions of a second required to make it onto the podium as part of Canada’s Performance Technology program,” said Alex Baumann, chief executive officer, Own the Podium. “Mike has a proven track record of success in ensuring Canada is effectively leveraging world-leading technology for the benefit of the nation’s Olympic and Paralympic programs.”
Christie’s role will be divided between intelligence and performance analysis. He will be responsible for monitoring the latest trends via intelligence gathering in an effort to lead the nation’s development and use of applied performance analysis designed to increase podium performances on the Olympic and Paralympic stage. Working with the national sport organization’s, Christie will also apply new technology and programs in coaching to support performance. He will coordinate the development, direction and implementation of performance technology strategies including video analysis – Dartfish, GPS systems, enhanced benchmarking and applied learning.
Christie will work out of the Ottawa office beginning, Monday, 1 June 2010.
Own the Podium
Own the Podium is a national sport technical initiative that was created in 2005 to help Canada become the number one nation (total medal count) at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and to place in the top-three nations (gold medal count) at the 2010 Paralympic Games. The initiative has also set a goal for Canadian athletes to have a top-12 placing at the London 2012 Olympic Games and in the top eight nations at the 2012 Paralympic Games. Both of these initiatives reflect what Canadians want from Canada’s high-performance athletes and helps advance the “excellence” goal of the Canadian Sport Policy. Own the Podium’s largest contributor of funding is the Government of Canada with additional funding from the corporate community and the COC through its Canadian Olympic Foundation.
Source: sirc.ca
