Peter Eriksson's firing - Athletics Canada head coach

Great.

He has been such a petty dictator, I am so glad to see him go.

he's so not a coach

Canada was actually doing good in the opympics and worlds, so they throw him under the bus after he guided them to success!

Does this have anything with Coolsaet, Canada's best marathoner, not getting training funds? As reported after the Fukuoka marathon?

Because I don't know, what is the role of the Canadian national coach? In the US, it is an honorary title if anything. Does he have a hand in the training or racing schedule of Canadian team hopefuls? Which events' athlets does he "coach" everything from NACACs to Olympics?

Has he ever coached able bodied elite athletes?

What exactly does he know about the training of Levens, Coolsaet, Gillis, etc?

Nothing.

Does he understand that the elite Canadian athletes are going up against dopers and women with testicles. The standards he set for self driven non-chemicalized Canadian distance runners are an insult.

If Athletics Canada wants bodies at the Olympics, pay them.

And pay them to stay at altitude like the UK did.

Otherwise shove your useless jobs where the sun don't shine.

The highest up people at athletics Canada get all the money that comes in. NOT THE ATHLETES. A lot of these individuals in socalled management positions do nothing of actual substance, but still probably make 100k+ a year while the athletes are left scattering for scraps. That's the problem, too many greedy individuals in it for their own monetary gains first and foremost. The athletes need to go on strike or speak up or something, else things won't change.

I am replying to myself in the thread, but answering multiple questions from different posts:

It is not a figurehead position and I am not an expert on what all it entails to do whatever he was tasked with doing, but he did have a lot on his plate including the para team - they are looking to potentially pare down the position.

He did not directly coach athletes, but in the selection criteria for Worlds and Olympics he had the right to look at an athlete's training schedule. I always thought this was preposterous. I am pretty sure past head coaches had that right too....what would be the point? Sounds controlling-like.

For example if one of the athletes makes standard and is coached by a reputable entity like Lee in Vancouver or Salazar in Portland or Scott-Thomas in Guelph, etc etc, why would he need access? Power? Not that it should be a problem sharing that info, but it's the point of writing in the criteria that makes me scratch my head.

There was talk of structural changes and I asked for an example and one would be the carding system (funding), which has been a hell of a sore point during his tenure, but in all fairness carding and selection have been a sore point long before Eriksson.

For those who say that after a very successful Olympics it seems odd that AC would dump the coach, more than one person including CEO Rob Guy were quick to point out that you cannot attribute success to one guy in this situation. They had built programs that led to this success and if you look at London and maybe Beijing and a couple of Worlds, Canada was this [.] close to having a great event, with a bunch of 4, 5, 6 type finishes etc.

They said it was his management style. Apparently, in hockey terms, he lost the ear of the team.

I read into this communication style mostly. I could be wrong or there could be a lot more to the story, but I know from day one he was impossible to talk to.

If you look at the women's 1500m team, there is potential for greatness, but there have been some longer term injuries, so it is close. If you look at London Olympics the final resulted in half of the women or more testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Hilary Stellingwerff's race, she was beaten by several cheating women and therefore didn't get the chance to compete in the final, where anything can happen, right?

Canada's Olympics standards are set higher than the IAAF's standards. They are set against the top or selected (12 & 16) Olympics and Worlds performances. Well, if half of the finalists are doped, how is that fair? For example, if you have an athlete chase standard with all their will and get it at the last minute, they may have a training schedule for the big games that is now not optimum. You can only restart your training program once you finally qualify....qualifying in January is very different than chasing standards all spring and right up to nationals. You get can a lot of aerobic volume in between January and May/June and keep from being injured. Ask any athlete who has had a fantastic season and you will find most times that they had less interruptions in their training schedule due to injury or chasing standards.

Funding:

Regarding whether it is directly to do with Coolsaet not getting funding and that coming out at Fukuoka. No. There were a bunch of athletes who either didn't get funding or struggled to get funding or struggled to get permission to compete in an event that they qualified for ex: Lanni Marchant, doubled in the 10 & mara. Also our best woman long jumper ever apparently struggled to get funding. Very stressful.

And finally, Fred, again I am no expert in the funding and how it is dished to AC, but it comes from the COC, Canadian Olympic Committee. Apparently it is performance based. So as Canada did better in Rio than past events, funding should rise? Not sure, think so.

There are I think 68 cards handed out annually at $1500 and or $900/mth and they have criteria written that is very complicated. For example, they look at rising performances year over year or something like that (trajectory), don't quote me....for example Wodak had an injury-filled year and so they compared her crappy year rather than going back to her recent year with lots of training in it.....something like that. Real arbitrary stuff.

I am not dog-piling on Eriksson for sure. AC for some reason has had a long history with its athletes that is like this. Don't get me started on Diane Cummins' story, former 800m record holder Commonwealth Medallist.....

Hopefully the new person will be tasked with less and will have a better communication style.

Hey, if Diane Cummins got screwed over, people would like to know who shafted her and how many bucks he/she was pulling in.

Secondly, why would the head need to see anyone's training when they never coached a world class runner. Go hang out with Barry Fudge and hold a watch for Jama.

I don't think that Alberto's going to tell anyone what Levins is doing.

Previously, the people in Melissa Bishop's hometown were fund raising for her.

Where was the COC or Athletics Canada?

When they do set the standard, do they take into account that an opponent has a testicle and the world competitive time set reflects that.

What support did Bishop get?

What about the people the who hired him in the first place?

Canadian Olympic Committee

"According to Thomlinson’s summary, a majority of COC employees suffered or witnessed harassment — both sexual and personal — during Aubut’s tenure as president.

The COC’s human resources files document concerns about Aubut’s behaviour dating back to 2008 when he was a board member.

Seven years later, the 68-year-old stepped down as president on Oct.3, 2015 after several women went public with harassment allegations.

None of the allegations against Aubut have been proven in court, and Smith said last week that she is not aware of any criminal investigation into the actions of her predecessor"

That was from the Sun, and this is from the National Post:

"The question of why nothing was done sooner about Aubut dominated a conference call Tuesday between reporters and Tricia Smith, the interim president of the COC, and International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound.

In a letter first revealed in the French-language newspaper La Presse, and later viewed by Postmedia, former COC secretary general Jean Dupre ordered Aubut to stop touching, kissing and making lewd comments to female employees.

“It is critical that you understand clearly the behaviour that must cease immediately,” said the letter, which referenced a meeting on the matter attended by Aubut, Dupre, chief executive officer Chris Overholt and in-house counsel Jolan Storch. “You are to pretend that this conversation never happened, other than by changing your behaviour.”