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 pinnacle of traditional sporting dreams for thousands of years for a reason, I am trying not to view them as the only meaningful milestone available to me in this sport.
Fortunately, next year we’ll be spoiled for choice regarding championship opportunities and there is ever more interest and kudos given to performances achieved in independent events such as the On Track Nights and the innovative Podium 5km series.
For what it’s worth, these events bring inspiration in spades to the public, motivating all those who watch to get out and go to their local parkrun, to try a track event at school sports day or to sign up for Couch to 5km.
Street events that bring jumps and throws to town squares are some of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and there are limitless trails and roads on which to express ourselves. We’ll need to exploit these later summer events as much as we can to earn appearance fees and prize money that will fund the training blocks required for our next qualification events, and we might as well cash in on all of the fitness built up in readiness for the Olympics, as long as we can still summon our competitive spirit.
Amelia Campbell (Getty)
I learned the hard way last time around that paying too much attention to the judgment of others will set me back even further than the door-closing selection decisions themselves. This time I’m steeled to it, I won’t let it damage my ability keep bettering myself regardless, and I hope my fellow athletes who were denied a Paris place won’t let it dampen their self-esteem or their self-belief either.
Last time around, I had no plan B in place and ended my season after the Trials, my own fitness mocking me as it went unappreciated in workouts that no longer served any purpose. This time, remembering the inspirational post-championships revenge tours of the likes of Alex Bell in previous years, I’ve already got the next race under my belt in Cork with a PB that puts me fourth on the UK 3000m rankings this year.
It feels productive to have put the first building blocks down already toward a spring indoor campaign and it’s been a mightily good distraction from having my successes painted as failures.
Though I harbour my doubts as to whether British selection policies will be any less pessimistic for the no less than eight international championships that 2025 has to offer, the packed schedule does at least provide us with multiple attempts to make those teams and makes it unlikely that the same selections can be made for all of them.
For example, with the World Road Running Championships in California following directly on from the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, it is unlikely that the longer distance runners will be able to do both.
Verity Ockenden (Great Run)
As a result of the cancelled coronavirus championships of 2020, we will also have both a European and a World Indoor Championships taking place in the same year, not to mention also the European Team Championships, European 10,000m Cup, European Road Running Championships and the European Throwing Cup.
In the meantime, I remain a constant supporter of those athletes who will represent us in Paris this year. I only wish I could cheer them on in person and that they might enjoy the feeling of strength in numbers that they deserve and the applause of many when they return victorious.
What better way not only to inspire those of us who might not yet be potential global finalists but could well be on the cusp of it, than to show us how we can improve by letting us witness the preparation and performances of those who lead the way – even if we do have to self-fund?
This article first appeared in the August issue of AW magazine. Subscribe here