By Lauren Bird (The Aquinian — CUP)

When it comes to Canadian sports, there’s one game that always comes to mind: hockey. It’s part of our nations’ identity and culture, but what about Canadian athletes who don’t play hockey?

FREDERICTON (CUP) —  The importance of competitive athletics is constantly debated, especially at a time when many Canadian schools are deciding whether or not to join the NCAA. Sport is so highly regarded that it seems athletes and coaches are sometimes given special privileges on campuses.

This, however, is not the case for many elite athletes across Canada, especially those outside of major population centers.

When it comes to Canadian sports, there’s one game that always comes to mind: hockey. It’s part of our nation’s identity and culture. If Americans combined their fanaticism for baseball, basketball and football, then they could probably understand what hockey means to the average Canadian.

But what about Canadian athletes who don’t play hockey? Many of them struggle to make ends meet while they’re training for a world championship or for the Olympics. The federal government funds programs to the tune of $10 million a year, while some provinces, such as Quebec, Alberta, and Ontario, spend upwards of $7 million a year on amateur sports funding. New Brunswick — whose $3 million annual funding is the lowest per capita in the country — didn’t send any athletes to the 2010 Olympics. The government increased the funding for sports by 25 per cent this year. It was the first time since 1985 that funding for athletics has gone up in the province.

Evan MacInnis, the athlete services manager at the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic, said the increase helps, but there’s still a long way to go.

“We still won’t see that effect in London this summer. We might not see that until Rio. It takes six to eight years for an initial injection to show,” he said. “At the lower level, you might see more athletes doing better at the Canada Games in 2015.”

Not sending an athlete to the Olympics is telling of the state of New Brunswick’s system, MacInnis said. “It shows that four or five years ago, something was really broken. Sending an athlete to the Olympics is just a by-product of a really good system,” he explained.

This means that many elite athletes from New Brunswick have to go elsewhere to train. For example, in 2010, Quebec offered New Brunswick judoist Myriam Lamarche $10,000 to train there and compete for them. The province matched the offer a week later to make sure she stayed.

Many carded athletes — elite athletes who qualify for government funding assistance — are forced to supplement their income with separate jobs while training and going to school. Carded athletes make $900 a month to train and once they become senior, they’ll make $1,500 a month.

“When you’re first coming up through the ranks, it’s basically your parents funding everything,” said Olympic silver medalist Marianne Limpert. For many athletes whose parents can’t afford to supplement their training, getting sponsors is the answer.

“Once you’ve had some success, it’s easier to get sponsors. You really need money to get there,” Limpert said. But, she said, “in order to get those things, you need the money coming up.”

Limpert is on the board of Sport New Brunswick, an advocacy group for sports in the province.

“Even though there’s a lack of funding, we still have fantastic athletes that are doing a great job,” MacInnis said. “Our athletes are doing it in spite of the lack of funding.”

Jebb Sinclair of Fredericton impressed many Canadians while representing his country at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand this fall, where his team finished fourth in their pool. He then ranked 13th in the world at the Churchill Cup in England and was signed to a one-year contract with the London Irish of the Aviva Premiership league in England.

But it wasn’t always pro-contracts and World Cups for Sinclair and his teammates.

In his first year with Team Canada, Sinclair made the standard $900 a month. For the following three years, he was paid $1,500 a month.

“Once in a while, we were given a bit of money to buy cleats. We were given gear on tours and would use that most of the time. Luckily, I was on a lot of tours so I always had a lot of kit,” Sinclair said.

Even though money was tight and the work was hard, Sinclair still hopes to play for Canada again.

“[It’s] still the highest accomplishment I can get and while it’s certainly tougher going up against the top teams like France and New Zealand, everything Rugby Canada could do, they did,” he said.

Caleb Jones is working hard for the chance to represent Canada at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. Originally from Saint John, the javelin thrower moved to Lethbridge, Alberta last year to pursue his dream.

“I couldn’t continue the training I was doing in New Brunswick and get funding. I didn’t have the right training environment,” he said.

Jones is part of the 2016 Olympic Development Program and trains at least 30 hours a week. He also goes to culinary school, which carding pays for, and works two jobs, one at the local university and one as a fishmonger.

“Out here, you have car insurance, food, rent — and $900, it covers some things, but not everything. It has been a strain for sure,” he said. “But I mean, it’s difficult for the first few years of this kind of training.”

Jones acknowledges he will have to start looking for sponsors soon.

“The closer it comes to 2016, the more time I’m going to have to devote just to javelin and by that time I’ll be finished school and may not be able to work.”

Only four years into his javelin career, he’s determined to keep his roots deep in New Brunswick soil. Next summer at the Canada Games, he will still be representing his home province and hopes that one day there will be a centre closer to home.

Sue Douthwright played for Canada’s national women’s baseball team in 2005 and 2006. When she was 19, she represented Canada at the World Cup in Taiwan, where she collected a bronze medal.

The Riverview native went to two national championships with New Brunswick and five with Nova Scotia. Competing for a Maritime province, said Douthwright, comes with challenges of its own.

“The major disadvantage that New Brunswick has against Ontario, Alberta or Quebec is funding. [Because] they have funding, they’re able to run their programs year round, inside and outside, and they’re able to compete for gold at national championships,” she said.

For New Brunswick teams, that just wasn’t the case.

“They’re together a month-and-a-half, two months, maybe, and there’s no way you can compete with [a team] who’s together all the time.”

In order to play, Douthwright worked a full-time job, practiced, and drove for three hours in order to get to games during the season.

“Unless you’re from a family where your parents have money . . . most of the time you work. You work summers to pay for school or the bills that you have. So I had to draft up sponsorship letters, then go to local businesses . . . and they’d help me get to my goal.”

Due to injuries, Douthwright took a break from playing. What would it take for her to go back to the sport she misses?

“Funding,” she answers simply.