Krista Betts hopes new gov't funding will give more athletes the support they need to compete

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CanadaEast News Service

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Bass River wrestler Krista Betts says wrestlers, speedskaters and other athletes competing in high performance sports often have to go it alone and do without the support or recognition that players in more team-oriented games receive.

But she's hoping that trend can be bucked in New Brunswick, after the provincial government served up an investment of $120,000 in high performance sports last week.

"Maybe it's because they're more individualistic sports that they aren't as commonly recognized as hockey or baseball," said Betts, who just returned from Romania after competing in a tournament as part of Canada's junior national wrestling team. "With wrestling in particular, it's something people don't see on a regular basis, and not something people are going to consider."

Even though those sports may be more individualized, Betts, who's wrestled the past two years for the University of New Brunswick Black Bears, said the athletes that compete in them can never be completely self reliant, especially in somewhere as small as New Brunswick.

Here they need teammates to train with before moving on to national tournaments, because the proper competition needed to stay sharp can be hard to find in a province so sparsely populated. They need to travel to the bigger urban centres where those tournaments are often held. And they need the right kind of coaches to teach them the rules of the ring.

Betts says that all takes serious funding. She added that the $120,000 investment in these sports through a grant to the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic will help relieve that financial pressure.

The money will go to some of the province's most promising wrestlers, along with athletes competing in judo, cycling and speedskating competitions.

It's all part of the Atlantic High Performance Sport Strategy, which aims to produce more national team members by supporting elite athletes from across the Maritimes. It will help them employ more full-time coaches and cover travel costs to tournaments across the country and beyond.

The Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic is a partnership between the federal government, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Coaching Association of Canada and the Atlantic provinces.

Betts said we can't expect our athletes to excel abroad if they can't get help from home.

"With these kinds of sports everyone has a little bit of success but they don't get noticed until something big happens internationally," she said. "If you represent your province that doesn't seem to be as big a deal. People just look at the end result, but it's the work behind it that needs to be considered."