As Baroness Grey-Thompson has previously told UK Coaching, “elite sport is tough and it’s challenging and we can’t make it all warm and cuddly.” But while everyone on the trajectory to elite level undertakes the journey with their eyes wide open and accepts demands will be placed on them physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and economically, the simple truth, she says, is that there is no price greater than athlete welfare, and coaches and organisations have a moral and legal obligation to recognise and conform to that overriding principle.
Dr Lang showed a picture of smiling Great Britain gymnast Amy Tinkler, aged 16, proudly showing off the bronze medal she won in the floor final at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Standing next to her are gold medallist Simone Biles and silver medallist Aly Raisman, of the United States.
“Every one of those gymnasts is a survivor of abuse or maltreatment and I find that shocking. Behind those smiling faces is actually one of the saddest images that I have ever seen,” said Dr Lang.
The image provided a powerful emotional context to the day’s theme, asking where we should draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour; a poignant reminder of the cost of winning a medal, with the surface smiles disguising a hidden pain.
The same can be said of British high-performance sport, that in recent memory has also been a picture of health. While the nation basked in the golden glow of three consecutive Olympic Games successes, under the rosy exterior lurked an unedifying truth. Outward appearances, in other words, can be deceptive and you need to dig deeper than the surface to find out what’s going on inside.
We have to own up that a culture of fear exists. Have some realism,” said Baroness Grey-Thompson.
“In sport there are amazing moments in time, but we can’t continue to hide behind the glamour side of elite sport without investigating and being really honest about the process it takes everybody to get there – coaches, administrators, athletes.”
Referring back to the “painful, powerful picture”, Dr Bishop gave her view on the price of success: “Is that really success that we want? No. It is not acceptable success if there’s that level of abuse that goes into winning a medal. We have to go back to what’s right and putting athlete welfare first. Then let’s explore what’s possible when we allow athletes to thrive in the sport and afterwards.”
For Dr Bishop, it’s not just what we win that matters, it’s how we win. But equally, and importantly, the pursuit of excellence and duty of care are not mutually exclusive objectives.
I don’t think [having a high standard of duty of care] will make the performance worse. I think we will have athletes who are having longer careers and they will talk positively about sport and will encourage the next generation.”