Verity Ockenden writes about trying to move on from the pain of being denied an Olympic place – and why it’s important for an athlete not to feel defined by the selectors’ verdict
There are nine of us, including myself, who qualified to represent Team GB at the Paris Olympics this summer via our positions on the new world rankings system, but did not have our places taken up by UK Athletics. Nine of us for whom the goalposts must now move, who must conjure up a fresh dream, untainted by the futility of our previous endeavours. Nine who, in the eyes of World Athletics are among the world’s best, but whose capabilities have been deemed uninspiring and demoralising by our home federation. I’ll list the names of those athletes because they deserve recognition:
Amelia Campbell
Izzy Fry
Kenneth Ikeji
Jade Lally
Phil Norman
Jake Norris
Hannah Nuttall
Anna Purchase
Those of us with heart enough left to continue our careers despite coming up against such a crushing glass ceiling must keep doggedly working with a blind determination to reach the bar set by UK Athletics of becoming Olympic medallist material without breaking ourselves in the process.
We must do this while competing against some who cheat to get there, whose quite literally incredible performances have in part triggered the same gargantuan shifts in the qualification standards being set that have prevented us from the automatic selection the British policy demands of us.
We must do this while competing against those whose previous Olympic selection earned them tens of thousands of extra revenue in sponsorship, thus affording them a better quality of preparation for the next championships to come and creating a self-perpetuating snowball effect that keeps those at the top at the top.
Though the likes of Phil Norman and Amelia Campbell have fought tooth and nail to overturn their non-selection, it is now too late for any changes to be made to the 2024 Olympic squad.
Phil Norman (Getty)
While we will continue to fight for our right to a federation that will not engineer excessively spartan selection policies in order to mask their own failure to secure adequate funding for full teams – with the small but stubborn hope that perhaps somebody might listen and next time will be different – if we are to stand any hope next time around or even continue to make a viable living from this profession we must set our sights on something new.
Personally, although the Olympics have remained the…
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