Our Olympic City: How well do Vancouverites model health and fitness for the world?

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The 2010 Winter Olympics are just around the corner and all eyes are on Vancouver. We've been busily preparing for the world's arrival. Our city is beautiful, the ceremony plans sound impressive and the facilities are world-class.

As we get ready to host this ancient display of athletic excellence, it's interesting to evaluate ourselves, and the level of health and fitness we exhibit for those watching. How do regular British Columbians measure up? Most Vancouverites are healthy and active, but others are suffering and neglected. It's the discrepancy that is most notable.

With sedentary behaviour and obesity on the rise in Canada, we wonder if the average Vancouverite is living the Olympic mission. According to Statistics Canada, in 2008 only 50.6% of Canadians were physically active to the equivalent of 30 min. per day.

As British Columbians however, we toped the national average with 58.7%. Vancouver is top of its class with 70% of people who are regularly active. Active Vancouver challenges the other 30% to become more active, and offers tremendous support for residents who accept the challenge.

Vancouver parks are filled with stroller fitness classes, running groups and outdoor yoga. You'll find whole families rollerblading on the seawall, or kayaking off Granville Island. Physical fitness and healthy lifestyles are part of our culture and identity.

This identity can be largely credited to British Columbia's province wide plans and some unique Vancouver based programs. The Active Communities program offers $935,000 in grants to the 226 registered communities. This grant money can be used to build facilities, host events, or otherwise support the health and fitness goals of that community.

The grade five active pass is another progressive program that targets one of our highest risk groups: Children. Given to all grade five students in selected communities, this pass entitles them to free recreation center drop in programs. It includes, swimming, skating, fitness classes, and other drop-in sports. This nation wide program is being piloted in some of our greater Vancouver communities. The program targets children at a vulnerable age, and provides them with healthy activities in controlled settings. Certainly this is an investment worth making.

2010 Legacy now offers many programs including a series of sports and healthy living initiatives.  These programs promote physical activity in schools, host disability sporting events, aboriginal specific programs, and offer seniors health and fitness training. Offering everything for interactive training programs, to hosting events, 2010 Legacy now is dedicated to raising the number of healthy, active people in British Columbia.

The majority of Vancouverites maintain a reasonably healthy lifestyle, and our civic initiatives support these goals. Still, health in our community isn't just about rollerblading around Stanley Park and walking to work. Vancouver has some greater health concerns that need to be addressed.

Since the historic announcement on July 3, 2003, conversations around the games have been riddled with controversy. The issues surrounding homelessness in Vancouver certainly put a black mark on our claim to a healthy community. There are roughly 2,660 homeless people living in Vancouver. Just a couple of years ago, the BC housing initiative seemed optimistic about providing more social housing, and now they are scrambling cover the bad press. With 950 social housing developments since 2001, we still can't keep up with the ever-growing demand.

Health problems are rampant among our homeless population. Mental illness, drug abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and injury from accidents, violence, and neglected healthcare all plagues this community. Together with Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver has the largest number of homeless youth.

It's difficult to celebrate our progress in healthy living when so many people are suffering. We have an amazing collection of healthy, active people, now it's time to raise the standard of living for those left behind. The world is watching.

- Francesca Clarke -