About Us

In 2002, Canadian Federal, Provincial and Territorial (F-P/T) ministers adopted the Canadian Sport Policy, a commitment to enhance participation, excellence, capacity and interaction in Canadian sport, with the vision of “A dynamic and leading-edge sport environment that enables all Canadians to experience and enjoy involvement in sport to the extent of their abilities and interests and, for increasing numbers, to perform consistently and successfully at the highest competitive levels.” As a step toward this vision, Sport Canada – the Canadian governmental agency responsible for sport, from general participation to high performance – invested in Canadian Sport for Life and its core Long-Term Athlete Development Framework.

Beginning in 2005, Sport Canada assembled an Expert Group to lead the process and Canadian Sport Centres published the Canadian Sport for Life – Long-Term Athlete Development Resource Paper (Balyi, Way, Higgs, Norris, & Cardinal, 2005). This document provided a framework and philosophy for promoting lifelong engagement in sport and physical activity for all Canadians, while also revitalizing Canada as a competitive force in the international arena. Between 2005 and 2014, the Canadian Sport for Life Expert Group worked to facilitate the development of Long-Term Athlete Development frameworks and associated materials for each of the federally supported national sport organizations (NSOs). In addition, the Expert Group created dozens of supporting resources to deepen the understanding of Canadian Sport for Life – Long-Term Athlete Development across Canada and around the world. The science and coaching practices that were the basis for the original document have continued to evolve. The original document fulfilled its purpose of engaging Canada’s sport, recreation, education and health leaders in an ongoing dialogue about what “quality” sport means and looks like.

In June 2012, Canada’s F-P/T sports ministers endorsed a renewed Canadian Sport Policy for 2012-2022 (CSP 2012). While the first Policy was a catalyst for the Canadian Sport for Life Movement, CSP 2012 fully integrated Canadian Sport for Life – Long-Term Athlete Development. The policy goals of CSP 2012 incorporate the key outcomes of Physical Literacy, Excellence and Active for Life that are foundational to Canadian Sport for Life – Long-Term Athlete Development.

Over the nearly 10 years of its existence, and with this integration into the CSP 2012, Canadian Sport for Life had evolved from a project to a national movement dedicated to improving the quality of sport and physical activity in Canada. This led to the incorporation of Sport for Life Society in September 2014 – a federal not-for-profit that now leads the movement. Sport for Life links sport, education, recreation and health, and aligns community, provincial and national programming. Alongside LongTerm Athlete Development, Sport for Life represents a paradigm shift in the way Canadians lead and deliver sport and physical activity.

Now, Sport for Life’s – Long-Term Athlete Development Framework is written into Canada’s Sport Policy “roadmap,” and concepts such as physical literacy and the Long-Term Athlete Development stage names (e.g. “Learn to Train,” “Train to Compete”) are included throughout the policy to guide the understanding of readers. LongTerm Athlete Development has become the organizational paradigm of Canadian sport. Yet even in that short time sport has continued to evolve, and so has Sport’s for Life – Long-Term Athlete Development Framework. Thousands of sport leaders and researchers world-wide have contributed to Long-Term Athlete Development by learning how to practically implement it, extend it into new areas, critically analyze its underlying principles, and build an evidence base that supports the benefits of the Long-Term Athlete Development approach.