parting shot
She may be heading home but the Scottish Institute of Sport’s chief is not going quietly. Athletics watch out, says Natasha Woods
‘IF I was sticking around,” said Anne Marie Harrison, “dropping athletics as a core sport of the Institute would be under ser ious consideration. It is a sport which needs to take a bloody good look at itself – at its heart and soul – and ask itself what is going wrong here.”
After seven years in Scotland, the executive director of the Scottish Instit ute of Sport is packing her bags to return to her native Australia. Except she has been too busy to start packing, much less to begin the hunt for a new job in Melbourne.
But given her parting shot, there may well be some at scottishathletics willing to lend a hand just to see the back of her. Not that she expects a sharp rebuttal.
At the Commonwealth Games in March she described athletics as “arrogant” and a sport lacking vision and ambition. It was a damning critique and came after just two track and field medals to set beside record-breaking performances from the nation’s swimmers and cyclists.
Did the governing body seek urgent talks to address the deficiencies? Or did it even defend itself against such charges?
“No, I’ve had no direct feedback at all from the governing body, which I find disappointing, but not surprising because it shows up everything I’ve said about them,” said Harrison. “They are not even up for the fight. The only contact I’ve had is from individual coaches who’ve said I was bang on.”
When the Sunday Herald contacted the athletics federation about Harr ison’s criticisms, the response was “no comment”. But there may be an opport unity for feedback on Wednesday as the Institute hold their annual forum – the last Harrison will attend. No date has been fixed for her departure this summer. No successor yet named.
The outgoing executive director admits she is struggling with mixed emotions. Brought in at the launch of the Institute, she is, after all, about to hand her “baby” over to someone else.
“I’ve loved this job, it has been fantastic for me. You don’t get many opportunities in sport to create a new organisation. Wednesday is going to be tough. It will be great to have another opportunity to celebrate the successes of Melbourne, but it will mean confronting the finality of it all.”
There is much to celebrate. The Commonwealth Games saw Scotland win 29 medals, a record 11 of which were gold. While the tally did not quite match that recorded in Edinburgh in 1986 and Manchester four years ago, by all reasonable, comparative measures, it represented the nation’s most impressive performance. And 72% of those medallists were Institute athletes.
“The message I’ll be sending out is that this is still the early part of the journey,” said Harrison. “Yes, let’s enjoy all the fantastic successes from the Commonwealth Games team and the things that have happened subsequently like David Murdoch’s curling rink becoming world champions and Scotland winning the Calcutta Cup, but we cannot be complacent.
“We’ve had a great period of Scottish success and it has shown what can be done. There is no magic dust being sprinkled here, it is just talented, hardworking athletes and damn good coaches being supported by fantastic programmes.”
If the appliance of science and good practice can work for Scotland’s swimmers and curlers, why not its track and field athletes? Harrison accepts there are differences, not least that the sport relies largely on volunteer coaches. But that does not explain why the systems and programmes which have worked so well in other areas have failed to produce similar results.
“The track and field programme has been full of compromises from day one and in performance sport, the moment you get into any kind of compromise situation you are dead,” she said. “Scottishathletics is currently preparing a performance plan and that too has caused enormous frustration because the same problems apply. It is lacking any ambition and vision.
“I’ve made my position clear to them. It is just not good enough. The sport has underperformed serially. There are pockets of good work and I want to underline that athletes like Lee McConnell, Chris Baillie, Hayley Ovens and Susan Scott produced great runs in Melbourne, but the statistics from the Commonwealth Games were damning.
“Athletics is a very important Olympic and Commonwealth Games sport so we should not be able to envisage a day where it is not a platform of the Institute of Sport, but unless it lifts its bloody game it is in trouble. The fact it is a glamour sport shouldn’t be a reason to save it.”
It is not as if Harrison is a lone voice. Frank Dick, who recently stepped down as a board member of the Institute, believes the problem may be rooted in a culture clash.
“I believe our athletics culture in Scotland, while it has probably nodded and said yes what a great idea, hasn’t changed how it approaches the sport, from club level all the way through, to make sure that it can harness the advantages the Institute can offer,” said the former head coach to both the British and Scottish athletics teams.
“The sad part is you may still have a committee structure that, at worse, belongs to Victorian Britain and, at best, to a period between two world wars. That has to change,” he said.
There are nine core sports supported by the Institute, but a review process is under way. “After seven or eight years it is appropriate that we rigorously review our sports and there will have to be some serious decisions made,” said Harrison. “There are other sports which have come on to the radar, but the pioneering spirit in me means I want to make sure we’ve given everyone our best shot before we tumble them out of the door.”
Such future decisions will rest with her successor. By then Harrison will be in Melbourne, hopefully gainfully employed. “I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t say I was a little unnerved by it because I cannot control what the marketplace will be like when I get back there. But I would hope my CV and my experience will count for something.”
In 1999, when she arrived in Scotland, she prophesied that the hardest part of the job ahead would be changing attitudes. Seven years down the line, she senses there has been a sea change, but she is nervous about slippage.
“Scots, the gallant losers. Yes, I remember saying that. I do think that has changed now and success certainly allows you to manipulate and encourage that change. I hope the doubters have been pushed aside because we have shown what can be achieved.
“But I’m always worried that we are on the edge of slipping back. All it needs is one bad patch of results and it will be all doom and gloom again. That is something we have to be wise to. But that is the wondrous thing about this job, it is always the next event, the next innovation, how can we do more and better.”
She has day-dreamed about what it will be like to be back home. Perhaps sitting drinking a glass of Chardonnay on the banks of the Yarra. “When I’m sitting back in Melbourne, chewing the fat so to speak, hopefully I’ll be another Aussie cursing those damn good Scottish athletes,” she joked.
21 May 2006