DCHP-3

carded

DCHP-2 (Aug 2012)
adj. — Sports, usually attributively, e.g. carded athlete, carded player

relating to top-level athlete receiving governmental funding.

Type: 3. Semantic Change — An Athletics Canada/Athlétisme Canada program, funded by the Canadian government, provides international calibre athletes with living and training allowances. Those who are eligible are furnished with a "card" and become "carded athletes". The names of all carded athletes are made public on "carding lists" (see Athletics Canada reference).
See also COD-2, which labels the term "Cdn".

Quotations

1975
[...] that most "A" and "B" (top 16 in the world) carded athletes will miss up to 5 months of work and/or school between now and the opening of the Montreal Games in July of 1976.
1979
Of the 22 carded players, 16 will be chosen for the national team.
1987
That step, expected shortly, will allow him to be carded and receive funding from the federal government. He would also be eligible to represent Canada in international competion [sic] below the Olympic level.
1990
Also, the game in Canada should benefit from its inclusion as a full Olympic sport at Barcelona two years hence - for one thing, national team members stationed in Canada can now be carded athletes through Sport Canada, and receive federal funding.
1995
The top A-carded athletes get an increase to $810 a month from $650, B-carded competitors go to $685 from $550 and those with less experience at the C-card level go to $560 from $450, Canadian Heritage Minister Michel Dupuy announced.
1998
Rugby Canada also announced that 22 home-based amateur players will receive government funding for the first time. The "carded" players will receive $435 a month to help pay for training and other costs. The funding will be reviewed annually and can be upgraded if the team cracks the top four or eight of the world.
2008
It could well determine if he qualifies for government funding of up to $2,000 per month as a carded athlete.
2015
"The perception of being a non-carded athlete, despite everything I've done, is a dark one," Riker-Fox said. "Because when you go in and talk to a sponsor, one of the first questions that they ask is, 'Oh, well, are you carded?' " The assumption, he said, is that someone who has been to the Olympics and has won on the international stage would receive carding.

References