How B.C. grew to punch above its weight in sports and at the Olympics

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B.C. has come a long way since the first B.C. Day holiday was observed 50 years ago, on Aug. 5, 1974. It has more than doubled in population, from 2.4 million in 1974 to 5.1 million as of the last census in 2022. Its proportional rate of growth relative to the national population of Canada is first among provinces, as is its share of the gross domestic product.

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Buoyed by its Pacific Gateway geography, it is clearly among the most diverse of Canadian provinces when it comes to ethnicity, language and country of origin. That wasn’t the case in 1974, which was still 12 years before the global marketing campaign that accompanied Expo 86 — the world’s fair that forever transformed the downtown core of Vancouver and, ultimately, created what is now the city’s sports and entertainment district.

Construction had not yet begun on B.C. Place, the epicentre of that district. It would be another nine years before the then-domed stadium opened to the public in 1983. That first B.C. Day was also 36 years before B.C. Place hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, another transformative event for the province and the country.

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The province has made huge strides, transitioning from a forestry and natural resources economy in 1974 to one driven by high technology, tourism and all forms of transportation, including marine, in 2024.

Yet make no mistake, the evolution of the province as one of the country’s leading sports and athlete development hubs is right up there in defining what B.C. has accomplished over these past 50 years.

In August of 1974, the North American Soccer League (NASL) version of the Vancouver Whitecaps was just three months old and playing in front of average crowds of 11,000 at Empire Stadium. The Vancouver Canucks, meanwhile, were weeks away from training camp for their fifth season in the National Hockey League, but they were sharing the Pacific Coliseum with the old Vancouver Blazers of the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1973 to 1975.

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Set against a tradition of minor league baseball that has made Nat Bailey Stadium one of the most intimate and iconic sports venues in North America and current home of the Vancouver Canadians of the High-A Northwest League, it was the B.C. Lions who were the deans of British Columbia professional sports on that first B.C. Day. Founded 20 years earlier in 1954, the Leos had but one Grey Cup win when B.C. Day made its debut. A half-century later, the team has six Grey Cup titles to its credit and is hosting the CFL championship for the 17th time this November.

The Vancouver Grizzlies and NBA basketball have been gone since their 2001 relocation to Memphis, but other professional and semi-professional teams have emerged, including the Vancouver Bandits of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, Vancouver FC and Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League and the Victoria harbour Cats of the West Coast League. Also now in the hockey mix since 2021 are the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League.

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Vancouver in general — and B.C. Place in particular — has become Canada’s leading special event hub, with international soccer friendlies, the World Rugby Sevens and the upcoming 2025 Invictus Games and 2026 FIFA World Cup moving into the spotlight. Throw in the XV Commonwealth Games in Victoria in 1994 and multiple hosting assignments held by Kamloops, Canada’s Tournament Capital, along with a strong track record in hosting the North American Indigenous Games, and B.C. is prominently on the map of sport tourism, heritage and culture.

Yet it is in Olympic sport performance specifically that B.C. has consistently hit above its playing weight. Favourable year-round weather for summer sports athletes and terrific amenities for winter sports have certainly helped elevate B.C. as a training hub in recent years.

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The numbers tell the story heading into the second week of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Team Canada boasts a total of 316 athletes, with 140 (44 per cent) having a direct connection to British Columbia. Among these, 136 athletes (43 per cent) are affiliated with the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific, having accessed athlete programs, services and training support at the institute’s campuses in Victoria, Vancouver and Whistler in the lead-up to the Games.

That is remarkable given that B.C. holds just 13 per cent of the national population of 39 million Canadians. In Olympic sport, it is essentially representing for Canada at more than three times its per capita. Even more impressive is how B.C.-based athletes have turned their years of high performance training into podium gold, silver and bronze for Canada. As examples, CSI Pacific athletes accounted for 14 of the 26 Canadian medals won at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (56 per cent).

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B.C. figured in 55 per cent of the Paralympic medals won that year. At the last Summer Games in Tokyo three years ago, B.C.-based athletes won 10 of 24 medals (42 per cent) and four of seven gold medals (57 per cent). Watch for similar percentages Aug. 11 when all is said and done at the Paris 2024 Olympics and at next month’s Paralympics.

There’s no question that a year-round training climate is a big advantage. Facilities and amenities — both natural and constructed — provide further impetus. With more and more athletes training and living in B.C., the demand for more and better facilities will only increase.

Yet B.C.’s emergence as such a prolific training ground for Olympians in both summer and winter sports transcends climate, geography and access to everything from Elk Lake and the Pacific Ocean to mountain bike trails throughout the province. It is as much about human capital and expertise as it is anything else. Not only has Canadian Sport Institute Pacific engaged the services of more than 30 sport scientists in partnership with its national sport partners, the province has become a beacon for sport medicine and science leaders on the national and international fronts.

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That’s exemplified by SportMedBC, the professional not-for-profit society that was founded in 1982 by the likes of Dr. Doug Clement and Dr. Jack Taunton. With Dr. Clement and Dr. Taunton in the BC Sports Hall of Fame alongside Dr. Alex McKechnie, Dr. David Cox, Dr. Brian Day, Dr. Bob McCormack and others, it’s little wonder that there are more sport scientists, sports doctors, physiotherapists and sport trainers per capita in British Columbia than anywhere in Canada.

That provides an infrastructure that should allow B.C. to continue to grow as such an athlete development and sport development catalyst. And that’s something to celebrate on this 50th anniversary B.C. Day.