Like sands through the hourglass, so flows the cash from the wallets of Canada's top beach volleyball players as they try to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Carding money from Sport Canada’s Athlete Assistance Plan – which had been tentatively approved for 20 players – has been held back for six months by a Volleyball Canada appeal concerning a player who had been cut from the men’s team.
With the Olympic clock counting down, the players say they have hit the limit of their personal credit cards and cannot afford plane tickets to the crucial Europe qualifying tournaments for the July 27 to Aug. 12 Games.
The men’s team of Martin Reader of Comox and Josh Binstock of Toronto are among those affected by the lack of funds. Also affected are Maverick Hatch of Comox and his partner Sam Schachter.
Volleyball Canada says it will pay for the flights of beach volleyball players to Europe in the form of an interest-free loan. “If it’s an issue for them, we’ll buy their air tickets for the tournaments (in Prague, Moscow and Rome),” said Ed Drakich, Volleyball Canada’s high performance director for beach volleyball, in an article in the Globe and Mail.
“We don’t want players to miss out on the Olympics because they didn’t have a ticket to the qualifying events. We’ll make sure the athletes get their flights. ... The bottom line is, we’re alive and can get to the Games.”
“The carding [money] is on hold because of the appeal process,” said Drakich, adding that the appeal process has dragged on an unusually long time.
Seven-year veteran Rich VanHuizen is making an appeal after not being picked for the national squad this year.
“It is the responsibility of Volleyball Canada to determine the eligibility of their athletes for carding and to provide this information to Sport Canada,” explained Len Westerberg, Sport Canada media relations adviser.
“The appeal process ... is internal to Volleyball Canada, and Sport Canada is unable to complete the carding process until Volleyball Canada completes its appeal process.”
The women's team of Heather Bansley and Liz Maloney have spent thousands of dollars out of their pockets to fund their Olympic dream and said they will turn down the national body's late offers to lend money to players.
Ranked 29th io the world tour, Reader and Binstock have three Olympic qualifying events left – the May 22-27 Prague Open plus tournaments in Moscow and Rome. They can advance to the 24-team Olympic field as a regional (NORCECA) representative if they win the Continental Cup in Mazatlan, Mexico in late June. Reader won last year’s Continental Cup with a different partner.
Reader said he and Binstock financed their Olympic dream themselves this season and previously fundraised $20,000 “but we have emptied that pot. We were proactive in our fundraising efforts as we anticipated these financial stresses but we were only able to do so much by ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Jane Roos, founder of the independent Canadian Athletes Now Fund (www.MyCANFund/.ca), has started an emergency travel fund appeal for Canadian beach volleyball teams.
"The men's and women's beach volleyball teams have been funding their entire Olympic qualifying journey on their own since last year," Roos said on her website. "Volleyball Canada has not given them any funding support, which is part of their mandate. Also their carding money has been put on hold for the past six months because of an arbitration between Volleyball Canada and a member of the national team.
"The carding money is given by Sport Canada and ranges from $900-$1,500 a month. Until the arbitration is resolved it effects 20 athletes. The athletes have only a few more events to qualify for the Olympics and need Canadians to support them to help them qualify for London.
"Every donation today will allow these athletes to focus on competing. The support is needed now! CAN Fund created this Emergency Fund a few days ago. Thank you in advance for considering to give and help them succeed on the world stage."
The donation line is .
"This is a rare opportunity to get a tax receipt with the donation through the CAN Fund," Reader said Friday in an e-mail to the Record as he waited to board a flight to Prague.
"It will go directly to our sport where normally donations go to a pool of hundreds of athletes and it is luck of the draw. The goal is $60,000 and we are at about $25,000 right now," said Reader, adding he hopes he and Hatch's hometown community can come together and help out as much as they can.
