UK SPORT chair Dame Katherine Grainger has challenged British Olympic and Paralympic sport to match its success at winning medals by being the best in the world at athlete welfare.
Speaking ahead of the funding agency’s annual World Class Performance Conference, the former Olympic rower said the British elite system must acknowledge the recent abuse, bullying and discrimination scandals that have beset several sports, not “brush them under the carpet or hope they go away”.
Grainger said: “We have to aim to be the best in the world at athlete welfare, culture, governance and integrity just as we aim to be so in performance.
“And we have to be seen to be the best in order to maintain public trust and pride in our achievements. We have done a lot already but there is a lot more to do. In particular we have to concentrate on putting these new and improved policies into action.
“Getting our culture right is simply the right thing to do. This isn’t about putting welfare before performance because there isn’t a choice between the two. I genuinely believe that a better culture will lead to a stronger system and that in turn will help improve performances.”
The conference will be dominated by the various “duty of care” and governance failures which have emerged since the Rio Games.
The first of those erupted at British Cycling and Grainger is visiting the sport’s Manchester base to meet riders and the governing body’s leadership. Almost all are new, largely as a result of the fall-out from former GB sprinter Jess Varnish’s allegations about former technical director Shane Sutton.
Since then, however, the British Para-swimming set-up has found itself under intense scrutiny for its own “culture of fear”. The governing bodies of archery, bobsleigh, canoeing, gymnastics, rowing and taekwondo have also all had to investigate allegations of wrongdoing.
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