Sport England board member: “Team GB is not representative the diversity in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Too many sports are dominated white, suburban athletes and too few encourage athletes from urban areas.”
While Bethany Shriever, BMX rider Bethany Shriever, and Kye Whyte are standout stories at the Tokyo Olympics 2010, Bethany Shriever was forced to crowdfund and work in a teaching position to travel to competitions. British Cycling funded her in 2019, but she had to crowdfund. Emily Campbell, the first British woman to win weightlifting gold, was also a great competitor.
Chris Grant, one British sports’ most senior black administrators, said “There is a large underrepresentation among elite sports from towns/cities.” “Team GB Paralympics GB & their support teams don’t look and sound like the total population – I find that absurd. However, people don’t seem to think it’s absurd.
Grant presented the following information to Sport England’s talent inclusivity advisory group. Grant claimed that more than a tier of sports funded through the talented athelete scholarship scheme (TASS), had zero athletes not from white backgrounds and that between a tier and half of all Paralympic, Olympic and Paralympic sport had never had an individual of a different ethnic background.
This presentation also cited research that showed that approximately half of Team GB Medallists attended a private School in the last decade. However, 6% of serial Medallists attended school within a City, compared to 39% in the UK.
Grant is calling for a change in how elite athletes can be discovered and nurtured. Grant compares it to Team GB’s transformation from plucky, near-amateurs to lottery funded Olympics powerhouse. His “Mission 2032” aims to make it possible for athletes from all backgrounds in all sports.
Khadijah Mellah cites the Ebony Horse Club of Brixton, Mossbourne’s rowing program in Hackney, and Greig City’s sailing program. All are examples of young people falling in love with any sport. If given the opportunity, they may even discover they have talent. “Tokyo has once again shown that we have excellent talent development paths, but that elite sport gateways are not equally distributed.” Grant stated, “We need investment to change this, but we also need vision, passion, and will.”
Team GB’s inability to win traditional sports such as rowing and swimming at Tokyo Olympics has raised questions about a funding structure that has been described “brutal but efficient”. Team GB rowing – currently with two non-white athletes – received PS24.655,408 from UK Sport during the Olympic cycle. However, it only won two medals – one for silver and one for bronze.
Sally Munday is the chief executive officer of UK Sport. She stated that Tokyo had already been a source of inspiration for diversity. Team GB received more women than men at the Games, while Alice Dearing was the first African woman to compete in the Olympics.
She said that Team GB recognizes the need to do more and has set the goal to reflect British society as the core of its diversity strategy.
Overall, 86% Tokyo Team GB players are white (reflective a 2011 census figure for Britain), but Munday admitted that some sports required more work in order to reflect modern Britain.
“There’s sports that are already a good representation of British society. There’s also sports that realize they have more work to do. She agreed.
UK Sport has already reduced funding to “posh” sport – such as sailing, equestrianism and rowing – for the next Olympic Cycle in its effort to encourage a wider range.
Munday said, “This is an absolutely priority for us and all of our sports know it will be taken into account when we decide on funding.” You will see it clearly in the strategy. Because we mean it, it is clear and we are willing to be measured. It’s what we want and the sports have all come to the party to join us in getting there.
Grant explained that progress was “painfully slow, and difficult”. Grant explained that some of those in positions of power don’t believe it is possible. Part of that is unconscious bias, he explained.
Grant previously discussed structural racism in British sport, which Grant said is so widespread it amounts almost to apartheid.
“There is overt race through sports and activities at every level. Of course there is. Sport has a vast heritage of exclusion,” said he, adding that up until 1948, British boxing champions needed to prove they were born to two white parents.
He explained that it is good for sport and good for the UK’s Paralympic, Olympic, and Paralympic team compositions. “If some of these issues can be solved in sport, then it can serve as a model for what can be done in other areas of society.”