Foley says Olympic review criticism will prompt change

Athletics Ireland chief executive, John Foley, has welcomed the comments and recommendations made in the 2012 Olympic review.

The report released yesterday looked in-depth at Ireland’s performance in athletics in London and came down hard on elements of their preparation and achievements. However Foley said that such constructive criticism was exactly what they were looking for in order to improve for the 2016 Games and beyond.

“The review of athletics was more comprehensive than most, given the number of athletes and people in our sports that were interviewed. But we actually sought that, we looked for that so we could learn from it, and a lot of the changes made in the recommendations have already been introduced since the Games. We completely accept the thrust of the report and it is a pivotal moment for Athletics Ireland as we move into a new era. We’ve bought into the idea of a high performance future based on a systems approach and we’ve left the amateur era behind us now.”

Foley also suggested while medals weren’t the correct measure of progress, he did believe that the changes being made within the organisation meant there was a much better chance of podium places in Rio de Janeiro.

“We are looking into centres of excellence around the country as the report did say we were very Dublin-centric. Also, we’ll always be reliant on government funding but we are looking to produce more finances ourselves through mass-participation. But the report did suggest we focus on more specialised sports, not spreading ourselves so thin financially. With all that in place, I believe that the future is looking good and we’ll see steps taken in the right direction.”