With the Olympics now over and the Paralympics around the corner, some Islanders in P.E.I.’s sports community say Canada can learn from other countries and the systems they have in place to support young athletes. 

Norway, for example, is a much smaller country than Canada, but it took home nearly double the number of medals — a total of 41.

“It wasn’t just this Olympics that they performed so well. But they actually have overall in the winter Olympics I think the greatest cumulative all time performance, which is pretty amazing for such a small population,” said Tracey Gairns Brioux, the owner of Reset Breathe Fitness and the mother of four kids who all play competitive sports on P.E.I. 

The small Nordic country has a different sort of youth sports model — one that emphasizes fun over winning for kids. 

Parents like Gairns Brioux are adopting a similar approach in their own families. 

Gairns Brioux said things like working hard and being a good teammate are values she tries to focus on with her kids, rather than putting emphasis on the score. 

“I really think just as a coach and as a parent that it’s important to try to build our athletes as people, not just as an athlete,” Gairns Brioux said. 

Sport P.E.I. is also promoting value-based sports through one of its programs, called “Rooted in Values.” 

‘Our biggest challenge’

Some sport organizations in Canada use similar models to the one used in Norway, but not all of them do, said Gemma Koughan, the executive director of Sport P.E.I. 

“Every sport has a little bit of a different structure and I think that’s probably our biggest challenge in the country,” she said. 

“Every organization kind of builds their own structure… It’s not, across the board, similar.” 

To make the changes Norway has, it requires a collective will, Koughan said, adding that the Future of Sport in Canada Commission is looking into how those changes might take shape here. 

A report from that commission is expected in the coming weeks, she said. 

Values-based sport

With the Olympics and Paralympics at centre stage, Koughan and Gairns Brioux said there are some great examples of athletes who embody the values-based sport principles.

“I don’t think you could ask for more incredible leaders,” Gairns Brioux said of Canadian hockey captains Sidney Crosby and Marie-Philip Poulin.

“They’re that prime example of just all around good people, all around good leaders — and I think it’s important to have those conversations a lot.” 

For Koughan, the athletes to watch are sometimes the ones who don’t make it to the podium. 

“A lot of the athletes that are interviewed talk about the preparation and… the joy they can get from competition, and they may not have a medal around their neck and that’s OK. It was about what they were trying to achieve personally,” she said.  

“The goal doesn’t have to be anything about winning or losing. It has to do with what kind of experience you want to have… That may end up being some winning and losing, but it’s the experience and how you want to be treated, how you want to treat your teammates.” 

Koughan said that at the end of the day, the biggest impact sports has on kids doesn’t come down to the outcome of a game, match or routine. 

“At a young age, that’s not going to impact their life… The relationships that are created, the opportunities to learn, to grow, develop will be much more important as they grow as an individual.”