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This past week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge called on the leadership of Hockey Canada to step aside over its handling of alleged sexual assaults and lawsuit payouts.

Athletes in other sports, who have long been fighting to get Ottawa’s attention to fix problems with culture and accountability in their federations, were not surprised.

“Hockey is so bred and woven into the fabric of the Canadian identity it makes sense that they’re talked about more often,” said Olympic bobsled pilot Cynthia Appiah. “I’m trying to be optimistic that our turn is going to come.”

Athletes in sports such as rowing, rugby, skeleton, artistic swimming, women’s soccer and wrestling have voiced concerns about Canadian sports culture and issues ranging from sexual abuse and maltreatment to toxic training environments and financial wrongdoings.

But only hockey has risen to such prominence that Trudeau and St-Onge are publicly telling the leadership to go, or else.

Seven months ago, more than 90 current and retired bobsled and skeleton racers called for the resignation of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton president Sarah Storey and high-performance director Chris Le Bihan, alleging they have created a toxic culture where athletes are maltreated and finances are questionable. But Storey and Le Bihan remain as preparations begin for the World Cup season.

“I do wish that the minister could come out and say, ‘This is what I’m doing,’ moreso than, ‘We support the athletes and we hear you,’” Appiah said. “The overseers of high-performance sport in Canada — it’s high time that they step into the ring and solve this. We’ve done everything within our power, and it’s quite apparent that we’re not being respected as athletes.”

A week and a half ago, athletes in sliding sports hoped to elect a new president at their annual general meeting. They felt confident they had the votes to elect Tara McNeil — the only declared candidate — but Storey refused to allow a vote (claiming concerns over proxies) and, in a highly unusual move, ended the meeting by walking out.

When it comes to hockey, St-Onge has said this: “Since the leaders of Hockey Canada are holding on to their jobs, the voting members need to clean the house.”

But when asked why she has not publicly called out the leaders of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, or what she thinks about the halted meeting, her office said: “Minister St-Onge has used the tools at her disposal to address concerns raised by groups of athletes in other sports. This includes suspending funding until specific conditions have been met. For example, both Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and Gymnastics Canada must become signatories to the office of the sport integrity commissioner for their funding to be restored.”

The deadline for all sports that receive federal funding to join that office, tasked with independently investigating claims of maltreatment in sport, is April 2023. But according to Canadian not-for-profit regulations, the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton general meeting needs to resume by Nov. 7.

Madison Charney, a recently retired skeleton racer, watched with interest when the prime minister and sport minister told Hockey Canada leadership to go because they no longer had the “confidence” of membership.

A similar statement on their behalf would “show people in smaller sports that they can speak out and their voice does make a difference,” Charney said. “Because at the end of the day, that’s really what this is showing: that people in smaller, less funded sports don’t have a say in their own governance.”

The meeting where athletes were stripped of the right to vote was a devastating blow, she said: “I saw the end of our sport. If this continues, there’s going to be no way for us to successfully recruit people or successfully keep this sport going because nobody’s going to want to be around.”

Canada’s bobsledders start sliding in Whistler on Monday, with team selection races later this month. Appiah feels good about her own physical preparedness, but little else.

“We have a completely decimated team,” said the Toronto bobsledder, heading into her third Olympic quad.

There are always retirements after an Olympics, “but this is by far the worst I’ve seen the team, in terms of recruitment and the lack of athletes coming through.”

So few women have been attracted to the program that there aren’t enough brakewomen to go around, and the coaching staff is half the size it was going into last year’s Olympic season, Appiah said.

Retired Olympic bobsledder Neville Wright, part of the athlete group trying to drive change, said current athletes should be able to focus on their jobs of “preparing, training and performing” instead of fighting their federation. He said he’s frustrated by the pace of change, especially when hockey looks like it’s on the fast track, but hopes other sports will at least be picked up in its wake.

“If going through the pathway of hockey is the best way to help create change, then it is what it is,” he said. “It shouldn’t be like that ... Athletes, whether it’s a big sport or a small sport, they’re all important, right?”

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