Athletics Politics - Michael Johnson Interview


Michael Johnson being interviewed by Sue Barker on BBC Television on 24th March 2006, Day 9 of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. The British 4 x 100m Relay squad had just failed to get the baton around.The text over the interview has been added to emphasise that UK Athletics are the problem.

Athletics in the United Kingdom is contested under UK Athletics rules. As administrators, UK Athletics should maintain a role of strict impartiality between athletes, yet they fund some and not others basedon subjective criteria. They assist some with medical support and not others. The very existence of UK Athletics undermines the bedrock of fairness and equality for all in athletics. They contaminate the environment have been shown in the long term to harm more than they help the athletes they seekto assist.

The AAA of England were the guardians of the sport's values in England. UK Sport and Sport England forced the effective closure of the AAA's and have created a "Son of" UK Athletics, called England Athletics who will do as they are told, and have responsibility for developing talent. What business does any governing body have in identifying and developing talent, unless it develops all talent equally.

Athletes must be allowed to emerge naturally, based on equality and fairness in competition. If funding is available, it must be distributed based solely on results in the national championships in a transparent way, not as the result of an interview or the recommendations of a senior coach.

See:

www.british-athletics.co.uk SLASH foster SLASH altern.pdf

for a paper presenting the way forward for the sport of athletics.







Channel: Sports
Uploaded: February 11, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Author: BritishAthletics

Length: 00:03:50
Rating: 4.96
Views: 27613

Tags: Johnson Michael England Sport UK Politics Athletics

Video Url:


Embed Code:


Video Comments:
No Comment