After the death of George Floyd in 2020, sporting organisations and governing bodies all over the world started speaking more openly about...
After the death of George Floyd in 2020, sporting organisations and governing bodies all over the world started speaking more openly about race, diversity and inclusion. But how much have things actually changed?
UK Athletics (UKA) launched the RacEquality Network last month following listening sessions where it heard experiences of race within the sport.
BBC Sport hosted a video call with four-time Olympian and UK Athletics' equality, diversity and engagement lead Donna Fraser, double Paralympic champion Kadeena Cox, and world silver 4x100m medallist Imani-Lara Lansiquot. Cox and Lansiquot are UKA athlete advocates.
Do you all feel more comfortable talking about race now?
Lansiquot: Absolutely. Racism isn't something that just existed in 2020. It's always been there. And I've definitely gone through situations in and out of GB kit where I felt less than because of the colour of my skin. And I think what is so great about dealing with such a tragic moment, like what happened with George Floyd, is having the world come together and talk about something that's really uncomfortable. [It] creates this kind of loving and accepting space where you're allowed to talk about this stuff. I think that in the past, I personally felt quite scared to do that. Because you don't want to be put into a box or you don't want people to lash out at you for speaking out. And I do feel like last year, we had this space where people were ready to listen.
Fraser: For us as an organisation we need to dig a bit deeper and embed [race, diversity and inclusion] in how we behave and how we speak to others. It's all about people and treating people fairly and accepting them for their difference.
Diversity in athletics
Cox: With the athletes, there's a lot of diversity. But when you look at the management, coaching and the boards, there's not that much diversity there. I think it's diversity within those roles that's needed.
Currently, I think athletics is a lot further ahead of the curve than a lot of other sports. But that doesn't mean there's still not a long way to go. Because as we saw with [the UK Athletics sessions] let's talk about race, there's a lot of things that have come out where people have found challenges of, you know, feeling like they're being treated in a way they shouldn't be treated.
Is there as much diversity in the north?
Cox: It's a stark difference [between the north and south of England]. Once you kind of get past doing the Yorkshire Championships, and the Northern Championships, and you go to the British Champs it's like, 'oh wow, diversity!'
Sometimes I feel like you have to be a different person - you kind of morph into that person that fits in. But we had that support network of each other; we all just seemed to move together. You just kind of cling to that community of people that understand you and are similar to you. Because it is very different in the north from what it is in the south. -from source bbc.com
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