A trio of respected high-performance sport leaders focused on helping Canadian athletes and coaches win more Olympic and Paralympic medals in 2018 and beyond as Own the Podium unveiled its new winter sport team on Thursday.

The new team of high-performance advisors will include Dave Ellis, the athletic director responsible for guiding Canada’s ski cross athletes to two medals in Sochi. Ellis will also be joined by Todd Allison, who brings more than two decades of sport management, coaching and athletic experience with him to Own the Podium. Own the Podium will name its final new high-performance advisor later in the spring.

Dave Ellis was raised and educated in Elkford and is the son of a coal miner. He now lives in Fernie with his wife Miriam and two sons and travels to Calgary for his meetings. He holds a Masters in Sport Science from the University of Calgary and for the last 10 years has directed the world leading Canadian Skier Cross Team. This team won Gold Medals in Vancouver, World Cup titles and with Marielle Thompsen and Kelsa Serwa won Gold and Silver in Sochi.

Dave Ellis being inducted into Fernie’s Ski Hall of Fame

The Own the Podium concept has been “copied” by England for 2012 and by Russia in 2014 to win medals for their respective countries.

Peter Judge will lead the trio of respected high-performance sport leaders. Judge officially joined Own the Podium as director of winter sport following the 2014 Olympic Winter Games where he led the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association to seven medals.

“This is a passionate and determined group of high achievers who have played a variety of key roles in Canada’s high-performance sport system,” said Anne Merklinger, chief executive officer, Own the Podium. “With Peter at the helm, I am confident this accomplished group of technical leaders will foster the critical relationships required for Canada’s winter sport organizations, coaches and athletes, to win more medals.”

Judge, who was originally named Own the Podium’s new director of winter sport last June, has represented Canada at seven Olympic Winter Games as a coach and/or team leader, and brings 40 years of experience while immersed in a variety of roles in sport around the world. A medal-winning athlete and coach with the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team, Judge has guided countless Canadian freestyle skiers to 14 Olympic, 69 World Championship and more than 1000 World Cup medals. Judge also filled coaching positions in the United States, Australia and China before moving into his current position as chief executive officer at the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association in 2004.

Dave Ellis has spent the last 15 years in a variety of roles with Alpine Canada Alpin. Starting out as the program’s strength and conditioning coach in 1999, Ellis became the director of sport science and was responsible for leading Canada’s high-powered ski cross squad as its athlete director over the last six years where he has led the planning and execution of podium results at the international level. Ellis started his sport career as an applied exercise physiologist at the Canadian Sport Institute in Calgary.

Todd Allison returns to Canada having spent the last four years with the United States Olympic Committee. A former high-performance director, team leader, coach and athlete with the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, Allison has spent the last decade supporting multi-sport organizations and major Games organizers. Allison was part of the sport department for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Allison also recently played a key role in the design and operation of the Whistler Sport Centre and Whistler Athletes Centre.

“The Own the Podium program has transformed sport in our country. The entire nation is now focused on excellence. This shift, where the country no longer settles for mediocrity, is a movement I have had significant interest in since its inception, and the reason I returned to the Canadian sport community in 2004,” said Judge. “Success does not happen in isolation. Regardless of the position any of us have held, we realize it takes a team approach to get the job done. Todd and Dave have achieved great results while supporting this strategy. I know they will be key players in helping Canada build on our past successes, and push forward in our continued quest to be a world-leading Olympic and Paralympic sport country.”

Judge and the new winter high-performance sport advisors will work closely with winter national sport organizations, Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Canadian Sport Institute Network to build upon the common vision, while further developing the strategic priorities for Canadian athletes and coaches to achieve excellence.

Judge will also formulate funding recommendations to OTP’s senior management team, lead annual reviews, and develop new policies and programs designed to help more athletes win medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Ellis and Allison will be counted on to identify the resources that athletes and coaches require to achieve excellence while working with the technical staff of the various national sport organizations. In addition to monitoring the progress of the sports on an ongoing basis, the high-performance advisors will provide support and counsel to high-performance directors and coaches, and provide solutions to gaps in high-performance plans and programs.