Towards an explanation for the decline of athletics in the UK: a case study of male distance running

Abstract

Athletics is a sport close to the hearts of the UK public. Yet, when evaluated on the basis of world rankings and championship medals, it becomes clear that athletics in the UK has been in decline for some time. Available statistics reinforce this position. Indeed few, either inside or outside the sport, would argue against it. Despite such consensus, there is little agreement on the reasons why this decline has occurred. By presenting a case study of male middle- and long-distance running – traditionally the events in which Britain have consistently produced world-class athletes – this article provides three explanations as to why current standards (especially in the longer running events) are dropping in comparison with those recorded 20–30 years ago. These explanations focus on: (1) the ‘governance’ of UK athletics, (2) broader social change, and (3) school sports provision and young peoples' attitudes towards physical activity. It is our contention that the key factors put forward in explanations for the decline of UK athletics have been profoundly affected by the shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’, but not, as we discuss, in the manner suggested by ‘new’ governance theory. In conclusion, we argue that all three variables combined have contributed to the decline of athletics in the UK in general and male distance running in particular.

Notes

¹ UK Sport, ‘Report on “UK Sporting Preferences”’.

² UK Sport, ‘2012 Funding Figures’.

³ Interview and personal correspondence with athletics statistician, Rob Whittingham, Umbria Software Limited. Many thanks for this and part of the marathon statistics in the following section.

⁴ It is difficult to provide an exact date for the onset of this decline, but the statistics generally point to the late 1980s, especially in the longer distances. See the marathon statistics (Table 1).

⁵ Cited in Fordyce, ‘Marathon Chief Criticizes GB Men’.

⁶ Merry and Foster, ‘Will it Take a Miracle’.

⁷ See Sponsorship and Development Committee of Belgrave Harriers, ‘Comments on the State of Athletics’; Bicourt, ‘Running’, ‘The State of Sport’; Montgomery, ‘Why I Fear for the Future’; Grix, ‘The Impact of UK Sport Policy’.

⁸ Interview with Bill Adcock, March, 2008, see Grix, ‘The Impact of UK Sport Policy’. See note 30.

⁹ Warner, ‘UK Parliament’.

¹⁰ The recent shake-up in UK athletics included the ousting of Dave Collins, the controversial performance director after the Beijing Olympics; the bringing in of a new coaching set-up, including the legendary Scottish distance runner, Ian Stewart, as head of endurance (although Stewart is not a qualified coach) and the introduction of English Athletics Limited to deliver athletics to the grass roots.

¹¹ Ward, Athletics Weekly, 23.

¹² Foster, ‘Moving On’, 11.

¹³ See Bevir and Rhodes, ‘The Differentiated Polity as Narrative’; Marsh, ‘Understanding British Government’.

¹⁴ Bevir and Rhodes, ‘The Differentiated Polity as Narrative’; 2008; Skelcher, 2000

¹⁵ Marsh, ‘Understanding British Government’, p. 735

¹⁶ Rhodes, 2007

¹⁷ Grix and Phillpots, ‘Revisting the “Governance Narrative”’.

¹⁸ Grix and Phillpots, ‘Revisting the “Governance Narrative”’

¹⁹ Grix and Phillpots, ‘Revisting the “Governance Narrative”’

²⁰ Woolcock, ‘Edu-babble’.

²¹ Grix and Phillpots, ‘Revisting the “Governance Narrative”’

²² We draw upon 18 in-depth interviews with key commentators, ex-international athletes and leading distance coaches in this article. The interviews were originally carried out as part of research into the governance of athletics in the UK and we also asked for comments on the discipline's decline. See Grix ‘The Impact of UK Sport Policy.

²³ Athletes over 35 years of age are now more commonly known as ‘Masters’. The figures for 2006 were 216 men, 80 of whom were classified as ‘Masters’.

²⁴ Turnball, ‘GB Atheletes Must Toughen Up’.

²⁵ International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), ‘World Rankings’.

²⁶ Traditionally, a ‘club athlete’ pertains to a person who competes regularly in inter-club competitions and attempts to improve the standard of their running. A ‘jogger’ pertains to someone who is usually less competitive and less likely to belong to a specialist running club.

²⁷ Orme, ‘Why is Partcipation Failing’.

²⁸ For more detail on the specific decline in UK cross-country running, see Gains ‘Cross-country Running in 2009’.

²⁹ See the website ‘www.thepowerof10.info’ for past and current UK race results and rankings.

³⁰ Many thanks to Rob Whittingham for help drawing up this chart.

³¹ Interview with senior coach, March, 2008.

³² Halford, ‘Marathon Revolution’.

³³ Gillon ‘Distance Decline Analysed’.

³⁴ For further historical analysis see Crump, ‘Athletics’.

³⁵ Roche, ‘Sport and Community’.

³⁶ Bevir and Rhodes, ‘The Differentiated Polity as Narrative’; Marsh, ‘Understanding British Government’.

³⁷ Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Game Plan, 129,

³⁸ Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Game Plan, 13.

³⁹ Grix, ‘The Decline of Mass Sport Provision’.

⁴⁰ Houlihan, ‘Public Sector Sport Policy’, 177.

⁴¹ Sanderson, ‘Making Sense of “What Works”’, 62.

⁴² Deem, ‘Globalization’, 10.

⁴³ Green and Houlihan, ‘Governmentality’, 50.

⁴⁴ National Audit Office, ‘UK Sport’.

⁴⁵ Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Five Year Plan.

⁴⁶ That is, fulfilling set requirements to ‘trigger’ funding; see Grix, ‘The Impact of UK Sport Policy’.

⁴⁷ UK Sport, incidentally, was ‘recommended’ this policy of ‘focusing funding on those athletes who have a genuine prospect of winning a medal’ by the National Audit Office report into elite athletes support in 2005 (‘UK Sport’, 4–6). The rationale appears to be to focus on fewer sports in which Great Britain have the potential to win medals.

⁴⁸ UK Sport, ‘2012 Funding Figures’.

⁴⁹ Green and Houlihan, ‘Governmentality’, 64.

⁵⁰ Green and Houlihan, 2005: 154.

⁵¹ In fact, the recent appointment of Ian Stewart as Head of Endurance indicates an awareness by UK Athletics of the problem, although the downward trend has been evident for a long time.

⁵² Travis, ‘Reclainming the Olympic Spirit’.

⁵³ Travis, ‘Reclainming the Olympic Spirit’

⁵⁴ See Gregson and Huggins, ‘The Media’; O'Neill, ‘Running Battle’.

⁵⁵ Buckingham, ‘Running Isn't Just for Fun’.

⁵⁶ Gillon, ‘Distance Decline Analysed’.

⁵⁷ Knight, ‘Brasher's Dream Unfulfilled’.

⁵⁸ The first Briton in the 2009 London Marathon, Andi Jones, came 13th some 10minutes behind the winner in 2:15.20 and some 5minutes behind Martin's 1993 time of 2:10.50. The next Briton after Jones in 2009 was a further 3minutes behind in 2:18.49.

⁵⁹ See, for example, Castells, The Rise of the Network Society.

⁶⁰ Jotangia et al., ‘Obesity Among Children’.

⁶¹ As Rich and Evans (‘“Fat Ethics”’) note, there is an ongoing need to view media accounts of obesity with a degree of caution.

⁶² See Independent , ‘Children Say Being Famous is the Best Thing’.

⁶³ For more on the rise of celebrity culture see Rojek (Celebrity). For further insight into the specific relationship between sport and celebrity culture see Andrews and Jackson (Sports Stars), Smart (The Sport Star) and Parker (‘Sport, Celebrity and Identity’).

⁶⁴ On being asked to list ‘the very best things in the world’, the most frequent answer given by children in the survey was ‘being a celebrity’; the second most frequent was ‘good looks’; and the third was ‘to be rich’. Finally, and fourthly, children chose ‘being healthy’, see Independent, ‘Children Say Being Famous is the Best Thing’.

⁶⁵ Cited in Fordyce, ‘Marathon Chief Criticizes GB Men’.

⁶⁶ Gillon, ‘Distance Decline Analysed’.

⁶⁷ See Cashmore and Parker, ‘“One David Beckham…?”’

⁶⁸ For an excellent view of the commercialization of athletics, see Downes and Mackay, Running Scared.

⁶⁹ For further insight into issues relating to drugs (doping) and sport see: Waddington, Sport Health and Drugs; Houlihan, Dying to Win , ‘Doping and Sport’.

⁷⁰ Whannel, ‘The Unholy Alliance’, Fields in Vision ; Boyle and Haynes , Power Play; Rowe, Sport, Culture and the Media; Bernstein and Blain, ‘Sport, Media, Culture’.

⁷¹ See http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/4350810.stm.

⁷² For more on the case of Dwain Chambers see: Kondro, ‘Athelets “Designer Steroid” Leads to Widening Scandal’; Parry ‘Doping in the UK’.

⁷³ The ‘Super8’ is a meeting format in which cities compete against one another, the total meeting time is just a few hours and the action is designed to be explosive and keep audiences and media entertained.

⁷⁴ See McNab, ‘Back to Basics’.

⁷⁵ We refer here, of course, to state schools in England and Wales and not in the UK more generally. See Paul Kelso ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ for a good, brief summary of the position of school sports in the UK.

⁷⁶ See Department of National Heritage, Raising the Game , The First Year Report , Report of the Working Group .

⁷⁷ It is not unusual for public figures to espouse a love of sport in order to bolster their broader political motives. Prime Minister John Major had an alleged interest in football (primarily centred on Chelsea Football Club) and cricket (see Monnington, ‘Politicians and Sport’; Houlihan, ‘Political Involvement in Sport’). Interestingly, inferences towards the latter are often used in a colloquial sense in Britain to indicate fairness within the bounds of competition.

⁷⁸ For more on the background and subsequent achievements of the strategy see: Office for Standards in Education, The School Sports Paternership Programme; Department for Education and Skills, An Evaluation of the School Sports Paternership Programme.

⁷⁹ Phillpots, ‘An Analysis of Government Policy’.

⁸⁰ For example, Kurt Barling, London correspondent for the BBC. Barling, ‘What Happened to School Sports?’.

⁸¹ Warner, ‘School Age to Front Page’, 62.

⁸² Buckner, Changing Athletics Competition.

⁸³ It has been argued that the distance decline is a European-wide problem (see Nerurkar in Fordyce, ‘Marathon Chief Criticizes GB Men’).