But the podiums stood out less to me than Team GB’s emotional states. Crucially we saw athletes across sports take pride in their successes outside of competition, high-profile names like Adam Peaty and Tom Daley among them. Our medallists contained recent graduates, activists, and parents – including, for the first time in several sports, a number of mothers. Our gymnasts – after finishing an often-painful fourth in the male and female team finals – took evident pride in their achievements along the way: qualifying, defying injury, debuting. Being athletes, Olympians, humans, not just medal machines with broken hearts. It was inspiring.
Athletes who did not reach their aims responded with dignity and perspective; athletes who did used the opportunity to promote worthwhile causes and to prioritise joy in elite sport.
The Games only tell a fraction of the story, however. The BEAA works year-round to support athletes through good times and bad, so what do we hear behind the scenes? That issues persist, that sports are at vastly different stages in their approach to welfare, and that athletes need a strong voice working in their interests. We know all too well that serious action needs taking on funding, representation, and ensuring athletes are aware of the challenges that leaving sport poses.
But we also hear – and see – that progress is being made, and that there are fine examples of sports putting their athletes first while thriving on the global stage.
Improved attitudes to athlete welfare encouraging
This year we asked our members (mostly publicly funded British sportspeople) whether they felt attitudes to athlete welfare have improved since the start of 2023. Eighty-three per cent of the 132 respondents said yes, up from 71 per cent when asked about 2022.
Both these figures encourage me, as does the volume of national governing bodies proactively working to improve the system. My team were proud to provide observers for selection meetings – the occasions on which athletes are chosen for funding or competitions – across 37 sports between Tokyo and Paris, and to be invited to feed into dozens of policies and decisions from an athlete perspective. Neither of those could be said before 2021, and changing that required NGBs to open the door to an independent body for constructive scrutiny. I profoundly hope they – and athletes under their care – felt the benefit.
Other initiatives abound: ChangeMakers – a combined drive to support athletes in making a positive social impact – and UK Sport’s Powered by Purpose both aid development outside of competition.
That’s not to say everything has been addressed in a three-year cycle; we will see more stories of malpractice and of athletes failed by their sport’s duty of care. I have little doubt it will take years to fully reform a system of more than 40 organisations until consistently high standards – of welfare, communication and more – are without exception.
But the pace of change is unlike any I saw before the Paris cycle. The intent and first steps are there. Now Great Britain’s Olympians – I am certain to say the same for our Paralympians soon – prove that higher welfare standards can go hand-in-hand with phenomenal performance.
If that is not motivation to keep going further, I don’t know what is.
Anna Watkins MBE is a double Olympian and London 2012 champion rower. She is also CEO of the British Elite Athletes Association, an independent representative body.
