The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) is planning an urgent review of the way it runs its sports programmes after a disappointing showing at the Athens Games. COC chief executive Chris Rudge said Canada was falling behind the rest of the world and needed a find a quick solution to stop the downward spiral. "We have to change the sports system in this country dramatically if we're going to move forward," Rudge said. "There's an old saying that if you do what you've always done then you'll get what you always got and if we stand still we will fall even further behind." Canada has never been a powerhouse at the Summer Olympics but officials are worried about their steady decline. They won 22 medals in Atlanta in 1996 then 14 in Sydney four years ago. The Canadians introduced tough new qualifying standards for Athens in the hope they would produce a better team but the plan failed and they won just 12 medals, including three gold. --MORE 2332 Local Time 2032 GMT
