'It couldn’t get any worse' – review into UK Athletics demands sweeping change
An independent review into UK Athletics has found the crisis-hit organisation “couldn’t get any worse” – and demanded changes to its structures, culture and ethical approach.Dame Sue Street, who led the review commissioned by UK Sport, says many of her 50 interviewees had “experienced poor behaviours within the sport and also referred to a general culture of mistrust”.
Most strikingly, Street says that when it comes to certain grey areas in performance “UKA needs to transform the way that it approaches difficult ethical decisions … founded upon clear organisational values, beliefs and standards”.
In February BBC’s Panorama revealed that four senior UK Athletics figures had debated whether giving Mo Farah four injections of the amino acid L-carnitine before he ran the 2014 London Marathon was ethical and in the “spirit of the sport”. Concerns have also been raised over whether legal thyroid medication may have been used to aid performance, something denied by UKA.
The new UKA chief executive, Joanna Coates, recently admitted she was “concerned” by the Panorama report and pledged that ethics would take precedence over medals in future.
Street also warns: “It is paramount that levels of authority in relation to decision-making on the ‘grey areas’ are crystal clear. Individuals operating under pressure to deliver targets will find it difficult to maintain objectiveness. Therefore, a safe and independent centre for advice on these matters is required.”
In the past few months UKA has also lost its former chairman Chris Clark and former chief executive Zara Hyde Peters, who failed to disclose her husband’s “inappropriate relationship” with a 15-year-old girl to her athletics club.
UKA has also faced criticism over its relationship with Alberto Salazar, who was banned in October for doping offences, and failed to hit its medal target at the 2019 world championships.
Street acknowledges there had been improvements recently under Coates and the new UKA chair, Nic Coward. However, she says “the scars inflicted as a result of the period of difficulty within athletics are clear to see”, adding: “The impression formed during the review was that athletics in the UK is not currently in a good position.”
Part of Street’s package of reforms involves the UKA board opening up to representatives of the home countries along with improving its communication and digital strategies.
However, the Guardian understands that Street’s suggestion that the UKA members’ council could be disbanded has been met with horror by many given its vital role in scrutinising the board.
Street also offers a veiled criticism of UK Sport, the body that oversees Olympic and Paralympic sports, saying in the past it had focused too much on medals and not scrutinised individual sports closely enough. “It is important that UK Sport recognises situations in which it is appropriate to take a more interventionist approach.”
The report was welcomed by Coward, who said: “It captures what we have heard very strongly from across the sport, that there is a need for change.”Meanwhile Sally Munday, the chief executive of UK Sport, said the review would help “tackle the “deeprooted problems” in track and field. “We hope that this can mark the beginning of a new chapter for athletics in this country,” she said.