CEO Blog: November 2024

As we move toward the end of another calendar year of athletics and running, England Athletics CEO Chris Jones gives his thoughts on what we’ve seen in 2024, where the sport is, and what’s to come.

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As always – thank you

“To all the volunteer club leaders, club committees, run leaders, team managers, technical coaches and officials, event directors, marshals, race adjudicators, referees, and parents who spend an inordinate amount of time transporting their children to training nights and competitions across England - thank you.”

The continuing, vital importance of our sport

The contribution that you all make not only makes a real difference to the lives of individuals from all backgrounds, ages, and abilities;  positively enriching their  physical and mental wellbeing, but it plays a direct and tangible role in creating social impact, strengthening communities and making a positive difference to how we feel about ourselves, each other, and the world in general. Recent history has shown how much we need sport during times of uncertainty, and it has felt like that again on many occasions during this last year.

Let’s hope that in 2024 this Government continues to invest heavily in sport, both nationally and locally, and in organisations delivering athletics and running, knowing all that we know about what it brings in relation to accessibility, inclusion, togetherness and general good.

"An investment in community sport is an investment in health, education, regeneration, cohesion, sustainability, the economy and prevention – we know it, we see it, feel it, hear it throughout the year through the countless lived experience and stories that make you burst with pride and fill up with emotion."

An investment in sports participation and events will help to offset pressures on the NHS and make our nation healthier, more prosperous and deliver moments that we can all be proud of.

Looking back at 2024

Much has been made of the medal-winning performances of our athletes in Paris at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are all immensely proud of each performance, and it was fantastic to see a number of the competing English athletes at our recent Hall of Fame celebrations where we also recognised the volunteer heroes of our sport.

"No athlete achievement would have been possible without the efforts of volunteers and the support systems that exist around athletes as they make their way, often not a straight linear trajectory, to the performance end of our sport."

Communities build champions and our member clubs, running groups, event providers, and families are at the heart of this construct.

Such selfless efforts are typified by the recent King’s Award announcements that we covered in early November. I was personally delighted to see FitMums and Redway Runners follow in the footsteps of Marshall Milton Keynes AC (2020) who were awarded the then Queen’s award for community service during a year when the pandemic affected us all. I had the great privilege of visiting all three organisations in the last few years and witnessed first hand many of the aspects and impacts that I have referred to earlier.

Forward-thinking people, proactive leadership delivering enjoyable, relevant, creative, and impactful training and competitive activities for all, whatever ability or aspiration the participant has. They are a barometer for what is a nationwide effort and are typical of countless other clubs and running groups across England.

Looking ahead

As we look towards 2025, there is much that we have to look forward to by way of opportunity both on and off the track including a full programme of international and domestic competition in a year which will mark the countdown to the 2026 European Track and Field Championships and Commonwealth Games, but also there are real challenges that our sport faces that we will need to collaborate on if we are to make the foundations of our sport stronger for the future.

Making athletics and running the preferred sport of choice for young people is important, but need to also look to inspire older generations, as we look to make our sport a truly playground to retirement pastime. We are delivering our sport during a time when there is such a pull-on people’s leisure time, and this is one such opportunity - but also challenge - that we must face together.

We know we have an issue in our sport in keeping young people engaged in track and field athletics. We have openly said this on numerous occasions and have set about working to make changes to the way in which our sport is organised and delivered in light of these real challenges. Changing the youth and junior age groups for competition in 2026 is one such change, but this is only one tactic amongst others that need to be explored and enacted to make that difference.

"Tackling such evident challenges in our sport requires an open mindset, not a fixed one. It requires innovation, a degree of sensible risk taking (and being prepared to try, test, fail, and succeed) collaboration, respectful debate and engagement (even when we disagree) and collective responsibility to give change a chance of succeeding."

What worked as recently as five years ago will not necessarily work now. That ship has sailed, and we need to think and act differently to meet the needs of a modern society and the needs and wants of a millennial culture.

Other such opportunities and challenges that keep leaders across the sport awake at night include the funding of our sport at all levels, particularly given the commercial sponsorship and cost of living crisis, rising costs of access to, and maintenance of, public track and field facilities and parks/green space for events, the growth of a diverse network of qualified coaches, technical officials to provide opportunities in our sport, the development of new volunteer leaders to assume the baton for the next generation and to lead our sport forward at all levels.

These are just some of the areas of our sport where England Athletics will be focused as we look towards 2025. On and off the track there is much to excite us, with a plethora of domestic and international competition planned to keep us gripped, but beneath this we need to work collaboratively at all levels to ensure that our sport remains healthy for in the public spotlight for years to come and for the next generation to enjoy.

Shaping the sport for the future…

If you think you can contribute constructively and proactively to these matters during 2025 then please do consider putting yourself forward for election to one of our nine regional councils. It is that time of the year when elections to our council structure take effect and by April 2025, we will appoint and announce a new round of councillors who will form an integral part of our consultative governance structure for the sport in England.

"The England National and Regional Councils play an active and important role in canvassing opinion on the big topics in the sport and we need a broad range of experiences and backgrounds to help shape the future direction of our great sport."

We always need to work to ensure that our governance structure at all levels of the sport reflects the participation base that it serves – that means a mixture of genders, age, abilities, experience, ethnicities, knowledge. We are committed to this at England Athletics and would be delighted to receive applications from those across our community.

Take care and thank you again.

Chris Jones, CEO