The government has today published guidance which outlines what measures and mitigations need to be in place to allow athletes and support staff to safely return to training.
The guidance document, which was prepared by a working group led by UK Sport CEO Sally Munday, is designed to act as a framework for each sport to make a risk assessment against to determine whether they are able to ensure a safe environment for training.
Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport said: “This guidance has been developed with input from athletes and experts including CEOs, Chief Medical Officers, Performance and Operations Directors representing Olympic, Paralympic and professional sport.
“It is important to note that the publication of this guidance does not mean that all Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes should return to training straight away and indeed, we fully expect different sports will return to training at different times. Each sport will need to make a risk assessment against the guidance and determine what is best for both their athletes and staff.
“The choice to return to training is also a personal one. Every sport is different and everyone’s personal circumstances are different and whilst clearly there are many who are keen to return to training as soon as possible, there are those who will have genuine concerns or personal circumstances that make this challenging. As always, we are urging all sports to continue to make the welfare of athletes and staff their number one priority.
“We are therefore asking all sports to work through the guidance carefully, to give confidence to both athletes and support staff that they can “opt in” to any return to training safely. Ultimately the decision on when to return to organised training must be taken by each sport, in conjunction with relevant training facility providers, understanding all of the complexities and intricacies of individual sports.”
The guidance document is available here.