In The Duel, 24 hours columnists David Eby and Kathryn Marshall battle over the issues of the day. Who's the winner this week? Fire us an email at van24feedback@sunmedia.ca. 150 words or less please.

THIS WEEK'S TOPIC - Canadian spending on Olympic athlete development.

It's not every day that I'll argue the government should spend more money on something.

Normally, I think we should be cutting back where we can.

However, when it comes to our Olympians, I say cut them a cheque.

Cheering on our Olympic athletes is patriotism in its simplest form - Canada competing against the world for two weeks in exciting sports that unfortunately most of only follow about every four years. Patriotism comes from the shared moments of pride, not from earnest CBC documentaries.

Our Olympic athletes spend countless hours training, sacrifice family and social lives, and, in many cases put school and careers on hold so they can make Canada proud and achieve their ultimate dream.

Moral encouragement is great, but it doesn't pay the bills.

We should offer our athletes more financial backing so they have all the resources to be the best they can be. Let's face it, getting to the top takes more than natural talent and hard work. Our athletes also need the best coaching, facilities, and equipment, and that costs money.

Read Dave Eby's column

They also need to be able to focus on their training without worrying how they're going to make ends meet. An athlete who has to moonlight as a landscaper is probably not completely focused on winning gold.

Own the Podium has seen results, but we could be doing more.

Take a look at Australia, a country with only two thirds of Canada's population but punches above its weight at the Olympics. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal neither Canada nor Australia won any gold medals.

Australia decided to do something about it and founded the Australian Institute of Sport devoted to supporting its international sporting success. It employs coaches, trains athletes and invests in sports science and medicine. And it worked - by the Sydney Games in 2000 Australia won 16 gold medals (58 medals in all), ahead of much bigger countries like Germany and France. Canada won three gold with 14 medals overall.

This summer Australians have been complaining of a poor showing in London, as they've only won 35 medals including seven gold. But that's still miles ahead of Canada with 18 medals, including a solitary gold.

Now, these are times of austerity, so we shouldn't go overboard. But let's invest in national pride and give serious consideration to something like a Canadian National Institute of Sport.

Compared to everything government wastes money on, a few million more for our Olympians is money well spent.