Latest news with #amateurSport
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Fortis Canada Games Complex opens it doors ahead of summer event
Local athletes will have the chance to test out the facilities they will soon compete in during the 2025 Canada Games in St. John's. Friday marked the grand opening of the Fortis Canada Games Complex on Lambe's Lane near Memorial University. The $34-million facility is home to a 400-metre, eight-lane track, FIFA quality soccer turf and an indoor training facility for the development of amateur level sport. Kim Keating, co-chair of the Canada Summer Games host society, said Newfoundland and Labrador is well prepared to host "the best Canada Games ever." "We have the largest number of athletes of any Canada Games coming," Keating told reporters on Friday.. "I think we're over 2,000 [athletes] for week one, and 2,000 [athletes] for week two." In addition to the athletes, a rough estimate of 20,000 to 25,000 people will show up for the event, said co-chair Karl Smith. "There's no rental cars available and no rooms available, so I guess that's as good as it gets," Smith said. Fortis donated $1 million for the facility. The company's vice-president of operations and technology Gary Smith told reporters the donation aligns with Fortis' values. "We're so happy to see the athletes out there. That's really what it's all about, is the young people across Canada who are going to come here and show what they did," Smith said. "They will grow into the future leaders of Canada." WATCH | New facility celebrates grand opening: Beyond the Canada Games, Premier John Hogan said the facility will continue to be used for year-round training opportunities for provincial track and field athletes, soccer and other sports. "My kids, my grandkids, people from all across the province will benefit from all the effort that's gone into building this infrastructure," Hogan said Friday. "Not just for the two weeks of the Canada Games, but for years and decades to come." The Canada Summer Games start on Aug. 8 in St. John's. Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
CBC
05-07-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Fortis Canada Games Complex opens it doors ahead of summer event
Local athletes will have the chance to test out the facilities they will soon compete in during the 2025 Canada Games in St. John's. Friday marked the grand opening of the Fortis Canada Games Complex on Lambe's Lane near Memorial University. The $34-million facility is home to a 400-metre, eight-lane track, FIFA quality soccer turf and an indoor training facility for the development of amateur level sport. Kim Keating, co-chair of the Canada Summer Games host society, said Newfoundland and Labrador is well prepared to host "the best Canada Games ever." "We have the largest number of athletes of any Canada Games coming," Keating told reporters on Friday.. "I think we're over 2,000 [athletes] for week one, and 2,000 [athletes] for week two." In addition to the athletes, a rough estimate of 20,000 to 25,000 people will show up for the event, said co-chair Karl Smith. "There's no rental cars available and no rooms available, so I guess that's as good as it gets," Smith said. Fortis donated $1 million for the facility. The company's vice-president of operations and technology Gary Smith told reporters the donation aligns with Fortis' values. "We're so happy to see the athletes out there. That's really what it's all about, is the young people across Canada who are going to come here and show what they did," Smith said. "They will grow into the future leaders of Canada." WATCH | New facility celebrates grand opening: Fortis Canada Games Complex officially opens in St. John's 9 hours ago Duration 1:39 The Canada Games starts in August, and as the CBC's Jenna Head reports, some long-anticipated facilities are starting to open their doors for the first time. Beyond the Canada Games, Premier John Hogan said the facility will continue to be used for year-round training opportunities for provincial track and field athletes, soccer and other sports. "My kids, my grandkids, people from all across the province will benefit from all the effort that's gone into building this infrastructure," Hogan said Friday. "Not just for the two weeks of the Canada Games, but for years and decades to come." The Canada Summer Games start on Aug. 8 in St. John's.
CBC
18-06-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Calgary startup tackles referee abuse with microphones and machine learning
Abuse of referees in amateur sport has been an issue for decades and all sorts of attempts have been made to curb the problem, from sternly worded signs that remind fans to be respectful to green armbands that identify novice officials to body-worn cameras that record footage from the refs' perspectives. Now, a Calgary startup is employing a bit of all those strategies, combined with a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning, to tackle the issue in a new way. Elements Athletics has launched a product known as Mic'd Up that involves wireless microphones in lightweight armbands worn by refs, coupled with signs that alert players, coaches and spectators that what they say can and will be recorded. The hours of audio caught by these mics would be cumbersome for a human to review, but CEO Mark Lootens says modern machine-learning techniques allow that process to be automated — and affordable. "That's the cool thing about where we're at right now, from a software development perspective," he said. "Our product didn't make sense three years ago. It would have cost a fortune. But we're in this really fun place right now, in terms of technology development, where products like this do become affordable, which makes them accessible, and applications like Mic'd Up for youth sports associations are feasible." Lootens says the company's "tuned machine-learning model" is capable of quickly reviewing hours of audio and detecting even subtle moments of abuse, insults or verbal threats directed at referees. The software then catalogues the incidents into a report that is provided to referees' sport associations, which can help when it comes to holding people who mistreat referees accountable. "One of the big challenges that associations run into is ... they have a hard time enforcing their own policies the way they meant to when they wrote them, because they don't have this record of truth," Lootens said. "A lot of times their situations devolve into he-said-she-said, and so we provide them with that record of truth." Young refs 'just not staying' Both Lootens and company co-founder Tamara Jarrett have worked as referees in the past and say the level of abuse they can face is not only troubling but also detrimental to the recruitment and retention of refs starting at the youngest levels. Jarrett said kids who are 13 or 14 can make good money refereeing, but she's seen many who give it a try and then quit due to the treatment they receive. "They're just not staying," she said. "It's not the money. They're just not staying." Lootens said referee abuse also goes "grossly underreported" because of the time and effort it takes for reports to be manually filed. "We're automating that, so that associations are dealing with a lot more data," he said. "The idea being that they can now start to identify trends, versus always just responding to a specific incident." 'This is a global problem' Elements Athletics received support from Platform Calgary, a local non-profit organization that helps startups launch and grow with mentorship, advice, connections to networks and access to capital. Platform Calgary CEO Terry Rock says the organization has helped foster the city's increasingly established tech scene, and it now counts roughly 700 tech companies among its members. So far, Elements Athletics clients have been local sports associations, but Lootens hopes to grow it around the world. "We see no reason why it can't be a global product," he said.
