This week, athletes have written to Team GB criticising their antiquated rules regarding athlete income, whatsmore, the Dr Freeman case continues its dramatic twists and turns in what has been a near 3-year scandal. What has gone wrong with British Elite sport? The truth is the entire system needs to be overhauled.
Through some of the most successful times British Sport has ever witnessed, no-one has benefitted more than management. In British Cycling, some management allegedly take home a pay packet six to ten times more than some Olympic and Paralympic champions. Whilst due to British Olympic Association rules, these very athletes can essentially become sponsor-less during the Olympic Games – that’s if their national governing body allows them to have 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 that athletes share none of these benefits. Athletes are eternally grateful for the funding received, the argument here isn’t about being grateful - it’s about fair distribution of the funding available and protecting athletes from abuse and inequality.
When athletes in the UK first began turning full-time in 1997 as a result of Lottery funding, the system worked well. Results turned from a single gold medal in 1996 to 29 in 2012, a meteoric ascendancy. Athletes were older, university/trade-educated, and were paid and treated as equals to management. Now, athletes are younger (turning full-time at 17 years old) 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 the case she recently lost against UK Sport and British Cycling to be recognised as an employee. Why support Jess Varnish’s case where she was seeking employee status in the face of sex discrimination? Initially, I didn’t. 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 and as yet unpublicised experiences have changed that opinion.
The truth is that Jess’ 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”. Around 1,000 athletes in the UK are subject to the same or similar “agreement”, leaving them with no real protection as it stands. For example, management know that they have full discretion to dismiss any athlete. At British Cycling, this is “ordinarily” with 3 months notice and 3 months transitional funding “may” be offered. Frustratingly, you’ll find plenty of examples of discretionary terms - an effective gagging order on any disgruntled former athlete considering speaking out.
I’m one of the few athletes who has a good understanding of the contract, and someone that athletes often reach out to when they want to learn more about their rights. Despairingly for me, my advice is limited to that of our “union”. Contractually you don’t have a leg to stand on – in fact, I’m unaware of an appeal ever being successful. Words formed, regrettably, through experience. Our “union”, the British Athletes Commission (BAC) is principally funded by UK Sport. As much as I believe 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 of the issue that athletes face is the British Cycling Performance Management team. Male, middle-aged and predominately non-cyclists, only one of whom has been an athlete in the UK Sport system. In comparison, the team is young, diverse and many have physical disabilities. See the discrepancy? 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 middle-aged men with a questionable history of respecting athlete confidentiality. There is no performance justification for this obligation. If you refuse, 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 most of the time works well, but sometimes leaves athletes including myself close to the edge and others out of pocket. This isn’t 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. They'll argue that they can't afford to improve athlete pay and conditions. 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 4-year if not a month-by-month cycle at best.
If Jess Varnish wins her appeal and athletes become recognised as employees, it’ll 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, 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 doesn’t 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 it’s way and fault lies at the top. Employee status will continue the gold rush, whilst crucially leaving fewer casualties along the way - It’s high time for change.