UK Athletics rocked by claims of sexist culture among top coaches
report details women being subjected to sexual harassment governing body accused of overseeing ‘old boys network’
UK Athletics has been rocked by accusations of sexual harassment, abuse and degrading comments, in a report detailing the lack of opportunities for female coaches.
The governing body has also been accused of overseeing “an old boys network” with alarming statistics revealing not a single female coach has been present on a senior British Olympic programme team at a major international event for more than 10 years.
In that time, 207 men have been chosen to lead the nation’s elite at world and European competition, while, of the top 100 athletes across all disciplines in the British rankings for 2019, just eight per cent were coached by women.
The Leeds Beckett University report, which was commissioned by the Female Coaching Network, paints a picture of a “closed shop” culture where decisions are made by and for men, with female coaches revealing a number of disturbing incidences of sexual harassment and degradation.
Joanna Coates, UK Athletics chief executive, has welcomed the report, claiming it is vital to help “change the environment” in which female coaches work, with a number of testimonies claiming not enough was done when complaints were made by those affected previously.
One female coach, who goes by the pseudonym Grace in the report, details an alarming incident on a coaching course.
“One of the lead candidates for [the name of a job role] in the evening at a conference, during evening drinks with a number of coaches, proceed[ed] to pick me up [and say], ‘Have you ever been s------ like this? You’re really light’,” she said. “It was harassment basically – me and another female coach were just fed up with it.”
The Daily Telegraph understands she reported the incident but nothing came of the complaint. The coach suggests she subsequently left her role with the governing body due to a separate incident of verbal harassment by a male peer, while the perpetrator has since continued to climb the coaching ladder.
“I said I wanted to step down and didn’t want to work in this role anymore,” she said. “But that person who was the instigator of all this, he is now still in a high position, because it’s an old boys’ network.
“I was prepared to step down
Joanna Coates knew it would not be easy, but an alreadybulging pile of problems in her in-tray as the chief executive of UK Athletics has a much more serious issue at the very top following shocking accusations from female coaches of sexual harassment, abuse and degrading comments.
As revealed today by The Daily Telegraph, Coates has welcomed an eye-opening report detailing the lack of opportunities for female coaches within the sport, with the governing body itself facing accusations of overseeing “an old boys network”, despite spending the bulk of her first year in charge addressing the numerous problems that already required urgent attention.
In her first interview since becoming UK Athletics chief executive, Coates told The Telegraph last March: “I didn’t want a job that was easy. I love a challenge.” After years of turmoil at athletics’ governing body, Coates knew what she was letting herself in for. Yet approaching the first anniversary of her reign, the biggest setback of all has arrived.
With more than a decade passing since the last female coach to figure on a senior British Olympic programme team departed, the Leeds Beckett University report has revealed the damning lack of equality across British coaching. That extends to the number of elite athletes currently being coached by women, a paltry eight per cent of the top 100 in all disciplines.
However, it is the appalling accusations from female coaches, which include sexual harassment, abuse and degrading comments from male counterparts in positions of power, which represent the most pressing in a continuing line of troubles that the UK Athletics chief executive has inherited from previous regimes in one of the toughest roles in British sport.
When Coates took charge, one of her most difficult tasks would have been remembering the multiple reviews taking place around UK Athletics’ procedures and cultures after years of mismanagement.
The most significant, commissioned by UK Sport, identified a “general culture of mistrust”, widespread experience of “poor behaviours” and a feeling that athletics’ current state “couldn’t get any worse”. Indeed, Scottish Athletics had formally told UK Sport that UK Athletics had lost the trust of the “whole athletics community”.
With morale among UK Athletics employees at an all-time low, Coates has attempted to create a “step change in culture” which will move “away from a focus on winning medals at all costs”.
A new 12-year strategy entitled Athletics Unified was launched in November, with the aim of having British representation in every discipline at all senior international events by 2032.
The Female Coaching Network-commissioned report detailing accusations of sexual harassment, abuse and degrading comments against female coaches has been welcomed by Coates, who says it is vital to help “change the environment” female coaches work in.
UK Athletics has also recently published a Diversity Action Plan to hold itself to account in a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
Coates was also well aware of the perilous financial situation UK Athletics found itself in when she took charge and has spent much of her first year at the helm attempting to stave off a repeat of 1997, when the governing body went bankrupt.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, UK Athletics was reeling from the losses of the ill-conceived Athletics World Cup, held at the London Stadium on the same weekend as the football World Cup final and Wimbledon tennis finals.
The Covid-19 pandemic then forced the cancellation of last summer’s London Anniversary Games and Gateshead Diamond League, ensuring the governing body lost one of its main sources of income.
Amid the financial turmoil, one issue of paramount concern to Coates is the need for a new television deal. Last summer’s British
‘I didn’t want a job that was easy. I love a challenge’
Championships were the last to take place under the BBC’S long-term broadcasting deal worth in excess of £2million a year to the governing body.
The months and years before Coates took the reins were marked by a conveyor belt of senior figures, with three chairmen and three chief executives coming and going in quick succession (in one case, they never even made it into the role before being ousted).
Coates insisted the turntable had come to a halt and convinced interim chairman Nic Coward to remain beyond the end of 2020. With Steve Paulding interim performance director when she took charge, Coates split the role before appointing Sara Symington as performance director and Christian Malcolm as Olympic head coach.
More vacancies are yet to be filled. Barry Fudge, who played a key role in Mo Farah’s four Olympic titles and had a close working relationship with Alberto Salazar, has yet to be replaced as head of endurance. Stephen Maguire quit as head of sprints, hurdles and relays after he was overlooked for the main position, and there is no head of field and combined events after Peter Stanley retired.
But although the prospect of these key positions being left unfilled five months out from the Tokyo Olympics remains unthinkable, there are now much more serious and pressing issues for Coates to divert her attention to.