With just over 90 days to go before the start of the Outgames, two sports have been dropped from the schedule, but chair John Boychuk says 18 events are still going ahead as planned.
“Due to circumstances beyond the control of the GLISA North America Vancouver 2011 Outgames, we regret that the water polo and figure-skating competitions at the 2011 Games will no longer be part of our program,” a statement on the website reads.
“The 2011 Outgames regrets the loss of such exciting sports, but at this stage we need to focus on the many sports that are able to provide sufficient athletes and attention to the upcoming event and competitions,” it further states.
Figure skating was “a consideration,” Boychuk says, but there was no local club to host the event. And with only one team registered for water polo, booking facilities was not an option, he adds.
He says he doesn’t have the latest registration numbers to hand as he’s been out of town but will have an update after a round of meetings on April 22, the deadline for early-bird registration.
Meanwhile, Boychuk is still awaiting word from both the province and the city about funding for the July 25 to 31 event.
He says he expects an announcement from the province within the next 10 days. “The unknown is how much and which areas [of the Outgames]. One area is for sports, one area is for human rights; we don’t know if it will be one or both.”
As for funding from the Vancouver 125th Anniversary Grant program, Boychuk says he doesn’t anticipate hearing anything about the Outgames’ revised application until the first week in May. That request is for $35,000 out of an available $650,000.
The Vancouver Parks board officially awarded the Outgames a Sport Host grant in the sum of $100,000 in February.
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