Jesse Heckrodt/Phil Wallensteen & Tyler Mosher/Kaspar Wirz receive preliminary FACE program funding

Read full story here.

In partnership with Own the Podium, Petro-Canada has launched a program called Fuelling Athlete and Coaching Excellence (FACE). This commitment by Petro-Canada to preserve their athlete development legacy with long-term, ongoing athlete and coach funding beyond the current sponsorship period is a very exciting initiative. The details of this exciting new program were publicly announced on November 3, 2006 at the Petro-Canada Sports Leadership Conference in Vancouver.

The FACE program is designed to provide much needed funding to pre-carded (athletes who have been considered for carding) national athletes and their coaches. In particular, FACE seeks those athletes one-step removed from national carded status to pair them with their coach, and then fund them equally. The goal is to provide the athlete and their coach with the resources necessary to close the gap and achieve national carded status for the athlete in the near-term, and improve coaching skills over the longer term.

Unique to Petro-Canada’s program, 50 athletes and their coaches receive funding grants of $4,000CDN each, for a total of $8,000CDN for each athlete/coach pairing. All Olympic and Paralympic sports are eligible, both summer and winter, as per the following breakdown:

Summer /Winter/Olympic / Paralympic breakdown:

  • 28 pairings –Summer Olympic (55%)
  • 5 pairings – Summer Paralympic (10%)
  • 14 pairs- Winter Olympic (30%)
  • 3 pairs –Winter Paralympic (5%)
  • Total of 42 Olympic and 8 Paralympic pairings

Cross Country Canada has submitted a list of 3 non-carded candidates based on last year’s results from the Olympic (U-23) and Paralympic streams and they are as follows:

Olympic
Jesse Heckrodt – Coach: Phil Wallensteen (Larch Hills)
Chris Werrell – Coach: Chris Paulson (Burns Lake)
Cam Egan – Coach: Doug Egan (Silver Star Nordic)

Paralympic
Tyler Mosher – Coach: Kaspar Wirz (Whistler Nordic)
Margarita Gourbonova – Coach: Mikhail Gourbonova (Nakkertok)
Joan Reid – Coach: Bill Maloney (Sovereign Lake)

Coaches of these athletes selected to receive a FACE grant will automatically receive consideration for an identical FACE grant. The Coaching Association of Canada will review coach candidates and forward the names of those identified to the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee will review all submissions and follow the sport review process in selecting those athletes who will ultimately receive FACE grants. The official launch of the FACE program will be at the end of February 2007.

Congratulations to Jesse Heckrodt and his coach Phil Wallensteen as well as Tyler Mosher and his coach Kaspar Wirz who were chosen in the preliminary selection for the Petro-Canada Fuelling Athlete and Coaching Excellence (FACE) program. Other athletes selected to receive the FACE funding program are to be announced in January.

For further information on the program, please go to the following link:

http://www.petro-canada.ca/eng/media/10324_12484.htm