While in Glasgow to give a keynote speech – Achieving Excellence – at the International Festival of Athletics Coaching, Jackson reflected on the five-year journey which took him through a good deal of criticism before allowing him to pass the process on to his protégé, double Olympic swimming medallist Alex Baumann, after the Vancouver Games.

"From a performance standpoint we didn't reach our goal of winning the most medals," Jackson admitted.

"The United States had an extraordinary rush of medals that we hadn't expected. But we did meet the goal of being in the top three."

But the amount of medals won, including 14 golds, represented the best ever performance by a host nation at the winter Games, and the number of "near misses" in fourth or fifth place underlined the overall strength of the Canadian team effort.

However, performance was only one of the two measures of success. The second was longevity.

"Apart from having a medal target, we also wanted the podium project to continue after the Games in order to enhance performance at the summer Games in the same way," said Jackson.


The second target has also been handsomely met. The Canadian Government, which had begun by producing funding of $23 million (£14 million), has raised it to $66 million (£41 million) as the initiative - under the overall business plan devised by Jackson, the Road to Excellence - continues under the direction of Baumann, a double gold medallist and world record breaker at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

When Jackson stepped away from the project in April, Baumann, who has always been known for his willingness to speak his mind without fear or favour, paid him the following tribute:

"Roger has been an outstanding visionary who has been largely responsible for shifting Canada's high performance sport culture to focus on excellence," Baumann said. "His uncompromising attitude to succeed at the highest level has brought Canada to new heights in the international arena."

Jackson's take on the core reason for the project's success is this: "We were not so much a funding agency as a leadership agency.

"If we had simply turned money over to sports we would never have achieved what we achieved. We set high standards and we required individual sports coming up to the Games to keep on top of things. We didn't let them off the hook."

Before taking up the challenge of energising his country's performance at the winter Games Jackson spent several years working within British sporting circles.

From 2003-2004 he acted as a consultant for UK Sport, and from 2003 until the Games were secured in 2005, he was a member of the London 2012 bid committee.

Once home, however, his attention soon focused on the target of raising Canada's game with a home Games just five years away.

"We started seventh or eighth in the world, and by the end of the Games we had moved up into the top two or three winter sport nations.

"People weren't unwilling. But it was a case of learning to use resources properly.

"For example, if a sport had three officials, we would be offering them two additional coaches, and perhaps a video technician, and help with research.

"Everything was magnified, and sports had to learn how to work with medical and physiological specialists.

"Our work started in 2005, and it started to bear fruit at the Beijing Games in 2008, where we won 19 medals, five more than in Athens four years earlier. Now we have shifted our target to the upper 20s for London 2012.

"We had not won gold at the previous two Olympics we hosted – at Montreal in 1976 and Calgary in 1988. But having won seven golds in Salt Lake in 2002, we doubled that total to 14 in Vancouver, which is the most any home country has won at the winter Games."

The operation which proved so successful in Vancouver nevertheless received some criticism in the media, some of it in Britain, with the suggestion being made that it was in some way 'unsporting' to have calculated and planned for success rather than simply opening up to other countries.

There were specific criticisms about the amount of time home athletes had been given to practise on the facilities at the Whistler resort, although no complaints were registered by visiting competitors.

But as the competition went on, and Canada's successes grew, home opinion in the media swung dramatically behind the project, and after the Games were over, played a big part in persuading the Government to maintain, and increase, its funding.


Jackson relates two stories which underline the approval ratings his scheme eventually achieved.

"Soon after the Vancouver Games our Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, at Number 10," Jackson said. "And as television cameras were being set up on the background, Cameron said Canada had had a very busy year, what with the Queen's visit, the G8/G20 summit in Ontario and holding the winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"Our Prime Minister's first response was: 'Oh yes, we won 14 gold medals!' That had clearly made a big impression on him.

"After the Games, our home athletes and coaches were invited to visit Parliament. They were all wearing team uniform, and as they filed through the chamber the members of Parliament began spontaneously singing 'Oh Canada'. Many of them were in tears – including the Prime Minister. I had never seen him so emotional."

Jackson is sanguine about Britain's prospects for the 2012 Games.

"There's so much going for you in Britain to get your team right for 2012," he said. "You don't lack anything in terms of resources. It's all going to come down to the leadership at the centre."

He does accept, however, that the current economic position presents particular challenges to those seeking funding for sport.

"Having the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 – that commitment helps in any ongoing discussions with the Government," he said.

"You have to do what Alex and I did – you have to find the arguments that resonate with particular ministers or politicians.

"We were helped by the fact that we were already getting improved results with our scheme, so we had credibility when we made our arguments for more money."

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames