As Canadian stars end Olympic careers, some wonder if resources exist to produce the next gen of medallists

“…in what is likely their last Olympics.”

Through much of these Milano-Cortina Olympics, you’ve read that addendum and heard that phrase uttered many times.

For Canadians, it has often accompanied medallists.

Thirty-something speed skaters Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais won team-pursuit gold in what is likely their last Olympics.

Freestyle skiing icon Mikaël Kingsbury, 33, ended Canada’s gold-medal drought in Italy by winning the dual moguls event in what is likely his last Olympics.

Bronze-medal figure skaters Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, both 34? Yup, likely their last Olympics.

Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty, 38 and 36 respectively. The list goes on and on.

It begs the question: Who’s next?

There have been some breakout stars for Canada. Megan Oldham is an Olympic champion and two-time medallist at 24 years old. Daryl Watts, 26, in her first Games, looks like a keeper for the women’s hockey team. Quadruple-medallist speed skater Courtney Sarault is 25. Their performances in Italy will make them some of the faces of the Canadian team as it heads to the French Alps in 2030.

But, as things stand today, they don’t appear to have much company. And the fear among some in the Canadian sports world is that those numbers will keep dwindling thanks to a lack of funding.

It’s an alarm that’s been sounded for years. The starkness of it on display in Italy is only making the noise grow louder.

“The fear is that this goes to a pay-for-play [model],” Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton CEO Kien Tran said in a recent interview. “You don't necessarily get your best athletes — you get the ones that can afford it.”

Through Saturday, individual sports (excluding hockey and curling), 17 different Canadians have stood on