Own the Podium
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| Founded | 2004 |
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| Chief Exec | Anne Merklinger |
| Sponsor | Sport Canada, Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee, VANOC |
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Own the Podium is a Canadian not-for-profit organization. Originally created as Own the Podium - 2010 to prepare Canadian athletes to reach medal finishes at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the program has since expanded to include a division for summer sports as well, known as Road to Excellence. As of 2012 the program's CEO is Anne Merklinger following the resignation of Alex Baumann for health reasons.
After failing to win a gold medal in the first two Olympic Games hosted in Canada (the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary)—becoming the only country to have hosted multiple Olympic Games without winning a gold medal at home—the Canadian Olympic Committee pledged to make Canada the top medal winning nation at 2010 when the country hosted the Olympic Games for the third time. The COC's program was inspired by the USOC, which had previously regarded the Winter Olympics as the "Forgotten Games", but then changed strategies and improved sponsorship of winter sports, and this led the USA to great medal successes at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
The determination to boost Canada's performance came just months after Canada's 13 winter national sport federations, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), Sport Canada, the Calgary Olympic Development Association (CODA), the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) met in Calgary in February 2004 to discuss their goals for the 2010 Games.
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