British Olympic Association chief criticises move to give prize money to track and field gold medallists
A decision by athletics bosses to pay Olympic gold medallists was inappropriate and has created problems with other sports, Team GB’s boss has told Sky News.
Last week’s announcement by World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe was a surprise because sports have never awarded prize money in the 128-year history of the Olympics.
Gold medallists in track and field will earn $50,000 (around £39,400) in Paris this summer before silver and bronze winners are also paid from Los Angeles 2028.
The decision stunned the British Olympic Association, which Lord Coe chaired until 2016.
“What wasn’t great about the announcement last week is when one sport goes off and does something on their own, doesn’t include the sports, doesn’t include the IOC, doesn’t include the National Olympic Committees,” BOA chief executive Andy Anson told Sky News.
“They create a problem because now other sports are clearly going to get some scrutiny or even pressure from athletes saying, ‘Well what about us? How can this sport do it and not others?’.
“I don’t think it’s particularly appropriate or helpful for one sport just to announce that.”
The International Olympic Committee was only informed by World Athletics just before the announcement last Wednesday and not consulted by Lord Coe.
World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe. Pic: Reuters
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Mr Anson warned of the risks of creating a divide between sports and said it “seems even worse” athletics was only initially paying out to Olympic champions.
“We’ve got to look at it holistically and make sure that we don’t create a two tier system,” he said.
Team GB is targeting a top-five finish on the medals table, having ranked in the top four at every Summer Olympics since 2008.
Mr Anson said: “I know there’s all these political issues knocking around.
“But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that in 100 days, we’ve got the most exciting Olympic Games happening on our doorstep, in the most beautiful city, with the most beautiful venues, with hundreds of thousands of Team GB fans crossing the Channel to go and support our team.
“And I want everyone to feel the excitement because in this building we’re ready to go. We’re prepared.”
Mr Anson was speaking in an interview to mark 100 days – today – until the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which is being staged in an unprecedented manner down the River Seine.
Pic: iStock
But French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged for the first time this week that the show might be restored to the traditional stadium setting if the security threat is deemed too great.
“I’m clearly concerned,” Mr Anson said. “It’s one of the most important things that we have to manage from a risk perspective.
“We’d be naive if we weren’t thinking about that. Our number one priority is to keep all our athletes, our broader entourage and our fans safe.”
He said the opening ceremony “is a high risk environment and that’s got to be managed accordingly, but the French are very, very aware of that”.
The risks are heightened by conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But the UK government has ended its opposition to athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus even competing as neutrals in Paris.
Mr Anson said: “The restrictions in terms of no military personnel, no one who supported the conflict publicly… means that you are getting proper neutrality. And I think now it’s time to move on from that debate.”
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Another debate in sport is over transgender eligibility policies and Mr Anson leans towards the government’s view that only those born female should compete in women’s sports.
“We’ve got to protect the women’s category and make sure it’s sacrosanct – and that women are competing fairly on a fair stage,” he said.
“We know that in the broader context, we also have to be sympathetic and embrace diversity and make sure that people feel included and not victimised in any way.”
Team GB is not expecting to have any trans athletes qualify for Paris.
“The generally accepted position seems to be, if you have gone through puberty as a male, you have an inherent advantage for the rest of your life,” Mr Anson said.
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A separately challenging issue for Team GB is the potential return to the Olympics for sprinter CJ Ujah following a 22-month drugs ban.
Team GB was stripped of silver in the 4X100 relay at the Tokyo Olympics after he tested positive for traces of ostarine, used to treat muscle wasting, and S-23, which promotes muscle growth.
The 30-year-old has been selected in Britain’s relay squad for the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas in May, opening a path back to the Olympics.
“He let everyone down by what he did in Tokyo, without a doubt,” Mr Anson said.
“So he now needs to go a step further than everyone else in proving that he’s beyond that, that he is actually helping other people address the issues that he created. So yeah, so it doesn’t sit that comfortably.”
CJ Ujah. Pic: PA
But Team GB is unable to punish an athlete twice for the same offence.
“We have to accept that if he’s nominated, he’ll be part of the team,” Mr Anson said. “But we’ll make sure that we impress on him that he needs to help others avoid the pitfalls that he created for himself and others in Tokyo.”
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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