Skinner: Elite athletics must be overhauled
Competitors deserve more – they need a fairer cut of funding and protection from abuse and inequality
Callum Skinner, the Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist, has called for an overhaul of Britain’s elite sporting system following fresh allegations this week of bullying and a legal threat from leading athletes over Team GB sponsorship rules.
Writing today in The Sunday Tele- graph, Skinner says the row over “rule 40” – guidelines which restrict athletes’ personal sponsors during the Olympics – is symptomatic of flaws in a system that exploits young athletes.
He is backing Jess Varnish’s call for athletes to have employee status, a relaxation on rule 40 that would allow athletes to increase sponsorship opportunities during the Olympics, greater diversity within management and new athlete contracts which do far more to protect against bullying and discrimination.
“The system has lost its way and the fault lies at the top,” writes Skinner. “The system worked well when athletes first began turning full-time. Athletes were older, often university or trade-educated, and were paid and treated as equals. Athletes are now younger, turning full-time at 17, and sometimes that youth has brought naivety. This has been exploited. Through some of the most successful times British sport has ever witnessed, no one has benefited more than management. It’s high time for change.”
Skinner, who is lead athlete for the organisation Global Athlete, is himself only 27 but has chosen to step away from competing in elite sport and is adamant that change will also have a lasting performance benefit.
Athlete welfare has been in sharp focus this week. A number of female athletes have made allegations to The Telegraph of bullying, “fat shaming” and an “old boys’ network” of “arrogant and egotistical” male coaches. The ongoing medical tribunal into Dr Richard Freeman, the former British Cycling doctor, has also heard allegations of bullying inside the organisation.
Over the past week, we have seen athletes writing to the British Olympic Association to criticise its restrictive rules regarding athlete income, while the Dr Richard Freeman case has continued its dramatic twists and turns in a near three-year scandal. What has gone wrong with British elite sport? The truth is that the entire system needs to be overhauled.
Through some of the most successful times British sport has ever had, no one has benefited more than management.
In British Cycling, some management allegedly take home a pay packet six to 10 times more than some Olympic and Paralympic champions. And yet, due to BOA and International Olympic Committee rules, athletes can essentially become sponsorless during the Olympics – that is, if their national governing body allows them sponsors in the first place.
Management fiercely defend their inflated salaries (six figures in some cases, pensions and employee rights and protections) yet turn blind eyes to the obtuse contrast which means that athletes share none of these benefits.
Athletes are eternally grateful for the funding received; the argument here is not about being grateful – it is about fair distribution of the funding available and protecting athletes from abuse and inequality.
The system worked well when UK Olympic athletes first began turning full-time in 1997 following Lottery funding.
Results turned from a single gold medal in all sports in 1996 to 29 in 2012. It was a meteoric ascendancy. Athletes were older, often university or trade-educated and were paid and treated as equals. Athletes are now younger (turning full-time at 17) and sometimes that youth has brought naivety. This is a demographic that has been exploited.
Jess Varnish has been very active in seeking to improve the situation for athletes. She is appealing against the decision in the case she recently lost against UK Sport for British Cycling to be recognised as an employee. Initially, I did not support Jess’s case, in which she was seeking employee status in the face of alleged sex discrimination. I was happy to get behind UK Sport’s “culture reforms”. I believed it was a case of a few toxic individuals ruining what was otherwise an adequate system. My own, as-yet unpublicised, experiences have changed that opinion.
The truth is that Jess’s case mainly centres around the “athlete agreement” – a lengthy document I was once told to “sign or don’t bother showing up to training tomorrow”.
About 1,000 athletes in the UK are subject to the same or similar “agreement”, which, as it stands, leaves them with no real protection. For example, management know that they have full discretion to dismiss any athlete. At British Cycling, this is “ordinarily” with three months’ notice and three months’ transitional funding “may” be offered.
You will find plenty of examples of discretionary terms, which can work as an effective gagging order on any disgruntled former athlete speaking out for those three months.
I am one of the few athletes with a good understanding of the contract, and someone athletes often reach out to when they want to learn more about their rights.
Despairingly for me, my advice is generally limited to that of our “union”: contractually, you do not have a leg to stand on. In fact, I am unaware of an appeal being successful. Our “union”, the British Athletes
Commission, is principally funded by UK Sport. As much as I believe that the BAC does a lot of positive work, imagine your union being funded by your employer. How effectual do you think it would be?
A good case study is the British
Cycling performance management team: male, middle-aged and predominantly non-cyclists, only one of whom has been an athlete in the UK Sport system. In comparison, the team of athletes is young, diverse and many have physical disabilities.
Contractually, athletes are obliged to share information regarding pregnancies, physical or mental illnesses or tragic family events with management.
Consider being a 17-year-old athlete with an unexpected pregnancy being contractually obligated to share that information with a group of middleaged men.
There is no performance justification for this obligation and I would have limited confidence in their respect for athlete confidentiality.
If you refuse to share the information, to quote the athlete agreement: “It may be considered as a factor in relation to selection for team representations.”
In organisations across the board, the castle has grown too high. The result is a system that generally works well but sometimes leaves athletes – including myself – close to the edge and others out of pocket. This is not just a case for better athlete welfare and pay.
Primarily, we need a change in the name of performance. A bloated, single-minded management system and legal defence of endless scandals costs money and breeds incompetence. It will be argued that they cannot afford to improve athlete pay and conditions. But consider how much money we could save in reforming top-heavy management and ending costly legal battles if they did?
Long-term ambition has been replaced by managing one scandal after the next (most of which are avoidable) and individuals obsessing over advancing up the career ladder. What used to be a 10-year cycle has become a four-year, if not a month-bymonth cycle at best.
If Jess wins her appeal and athletes become recognised as employees, it will force substantive positive change. No more warm words. No more disingenuous rhetoric.
The best way we can celebrate our athletes’ incredible Paralympic and Olympic success is to give them a fair cut of the available funding and the right to capitalise on sponsorship and employee protections.
This is not alien to the world of sport – professional team athletes have long had these rights. Our athletes deserve better in 2019: a contract that does not invade their privacy, provides a degree of security, one that defends the employee against discrimination, bullying and unfair dismissal as in any other workplace. The system has lost its way and fault lies at the top.
Employee status will continue the gold rush, while crucially leaving fewer casualties along the way. It is high time for change.
Imagine your union being funded by your employer. How effectual do you think it would be?
Callum Skinner won gold and silver in track cycling at the 2016 Olympics. He is now lead athlete for the organisation Global Athlete.