British Olympic Association

So being, you know, your kind of new inside, how did that make you feel at the time of being such a young age as well?

just incredibly let down, you know, by the IOC in particular, by, you know, the British Olympic Association, just by anyone that was supposedly in a position of authority that could have done something about it.

I've never had a problem with the young girls because, I mean, you know, they were pawns in the whole thing.

And I've since met many of them and most of them are very ill.

But we're going to carry on training, guys.

We're just going to use you to sacrifice.

And to their credit, the British Olympic Association said, well, you don't give us any money, so we're still going to go.

A few of the sports took their athletes out, but we did actually get to go.

goA pioneer, I can roll with that.

And yes, it's like, you know, so many years ago, the British Olympic Association decided it needed a psychology advisory group, and there were eight of us, and I, and I was one of them.

And, you know, so it's like, oh, gosh, there were only eight people in the UK doing this.

Proba- probably.

when he came to me to say, there's nothing, I've been told I've got to stop, I thought, well, this is worth you and I working together to see whether we can make this work, because if we can, that would be astonishing.

Now, why Steve is so amazing to us is that We don't have, and very unlikely ever to have, a full set of physiological data on an athlete before and after diabetes, because he was well studied by British Olympic Association.

So I knew what his performance should be and could then work out what part of his poor performance was due to diabetes and what wasn't.

And Stephen was an amazing person to work with because he was very open to any idea, even relatively unusual ideas.

And there's been a leading figure for the ECB building out the women's game in the 100 since 2018.

John Dutton, OBE, Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association.

12 weeks into that job, formerly chief exec of Rugby League World Cup 2021 and chief executive of British Cycling.

And Miguel Delaney is chief football writer for the Independent newspaper and author of a very good book.

While boarding the boat to France for the Olympics, Little learns that the 100-meter heats will be on Sunday.

Despite intense pressure from the Prince of Wales and the British Olympic Committee, Little sticks to his guns and his religious beliefs and refuses to run the race on the Lord's Day.

A solution is found because Little's teammate Lindsay, who already having won a silver medal in the 400-meter hurdle, offers his place in the 400-meter race the following Thursday to Little.

Little's religious convictions in the face of national athletic pride make headlines around the world.

He does not learn that the 100 meter heat is to be held on the Christian Sabbath until he is boarding the boat to Paris.

But in real life, the schedule was made public several months in advance.

Liddell did, however, face immense pressure to run on that Sunday and compete in the 100 meters and was called before a grilling of the British Olympic Committee, the Prince of Wales, and other grandees.

His refusal to run made headlines around the world.

Yeah

... from Simon Clegg, who was the, um, head of the British Olympic Association some weeks before the Games, some weeks before Athens, and I thought...

I, I really got hot under the collar when he rang me, and he said, "I've got something very awkward to talk to you about," or words to that effect.

And I'm thinking-