AAP Optics

AAP is Sport Canada*'s Athletes Assistance Program.

Athletes Assistance Program

The link should provide answers to questions about eligibility, compliance, how the financial support is received, etc. The AAP exists to financially assist Canada's high performance athletes whose NSOs (National Sports Organizations) are AAP-eligible, and who have had a top sixteen or above finish at the previous World Championships or Olympics, or who demonstrate the potential for such placement in the next World Championships or Olympics. It is not a reward for past results. It exists to subsidize an athlete's current training and living expenses while training for upcoming international events and World championships and/or Olympics.

Athletes carded for and receiving AAP support as of August 1, 2014.

Kaitlyn Lawes is also S1, and receives $18,000.

According to how AAP administers financial assistance to its carded athletes as specified in its Policies and Procedures manual (relevant examples below), and unless Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue have renounced their eligibility since August 1, 2014, their shared household currently receives $3,000 a month ($1,500 each*) in living and training allowance money from Sport Canada's Athletes Assistance Program.

There are exceptions to the residency requirements (see document link above) that anyone at Scott and Tessa's level could easily meet.

At Skate Canada, Mike Slipchuk (Skate Canada's High Performance Director) would be responsible for compliance oversight. An NSO's AAP-related responsibilities include (but are not even close to being limited to), the following:

The carded athletes themselves must sign the AAP agreement affirming that they understand and are in compliance with AAP policies.

More policy:

This is athlete assistance for Olympic, para-Olympic, and certain qualified categories of non-Olympic sports. It's not assistance for a couple of ice dancers watching from the stands at HPC as they transition from competitive athletes to mentors/advisers.

It's not a subsidy for show skaters whose days and nights consist of golfing, going to school, shopping, hanging out at the nonexistent family farm, walking red carpets, having girls night outs, enjoying musical theater, or pretending to golf or camp with the fake girlfriend. It's a subsidy for high performance athletes in training.

I suspect there's something Scott and Tessa aren't telling us. What are the odds?

Unless the athlete is injured or pregnant, in which event, a) the athlete in question can take off four months, during which time it appears AAP considers the athlete's training status to be the NSO's purview, not AAP's (so in Scott and Tessa's case, that's Slipchuk), or b) if the athlete has to curtail a full training/competitive schedule for a longer period of time due to illness, injury or pregnancy. In the latter event, they will continue to receive their full AAP assistance as long as they set themselves up to return to full high performance training at the earliest possible date, as per these guidelines:

Scott and Tessa receive the monthly living and training allowance awarded S1/S2 carded athletes.

From what I've been able to read so far (haven't found Skate Canada's own AAP document yet), most winter sport carding cycles end after the sport's competitive season concludes (often spring to spring), for each of the nomination period's two eligible years. It would certainly be odd if Skate Canada's cycles began/ended somewhere in the middle. But, whenever the given sport's cycles run, AAP compliance must be maintained month-to-month.

If Scott and Tessa aren't sure what they're doing, they don't stay carded. They do this:

Do the math, look at the training requirements. Sochi was six months ago. If they've decided to retire, it had to have been after they told Skate Canada, and Skate Canada confirmed to the AAP, that they intended to train for and compete at the 2015 Worlds.**

It's conceivable that, some time this summer, but in any event, no earlier than June 1, 2014, they decided to retire permanently, are in their two-month transitional period allowed by AAP, and they'll be off the next list.
 
But if, after Sochi, they didn't tell Skate Canada and AAP that they were competing at Worlds 2015, they wouldn't be getting money now. The money is for current training for upcoming World Championships (and Olympics, if an Olympic year). As said above, compliance must be maintained month-to-month, not cycle to cycle, and it's not a reward for past results. Of course there are reasonable training breaks per each NSO program, but figure skating doesn't have a six month training break, or a ten month training break (as Virtue and Moir don't intend to compete in the fall through the GPF). Virtue and Moir would no longer be eligible for AAP funding if they were on a high performance training break that long. They'd have to withdraw, temporarily, or permanently.

There are allowances for injured and pregnant athletes, and Virtue and Moir have the track record to keep receiving AAP in full and be ready to compete at Worlds 2015. But one way or another, they've been preparing for Worlds, and Tessa's twitter is the biggest shitload since Scott's facebook.
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*Sport Canada is a branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Sport Canada develops Federal sport policy in Canada, provides funding programs in support of sport and administers special projects related to sport. wiki/Sport_Canada

**During Olympic years, AAP eligibility is geared to Olympic results, not Worlds'.

P.S., here's the AAP carding criteria:

Paige, Rudy, Dylan and Kirsten are all National Criteria. As Kirsten gets what looks like SR1 funding despite her SR card, it appears she meets Skate Canada's criteria (in accordance with AAP guidelines) for the funding. Makes sense, she had a top five Olympic finish and is the only one raring to go with a new partner.