New Athletics Australia chief executive aims to address 'credibility problem'

Newly appointed Athletics Australia Chief Executive Phil Jones admits that track and field suffers from a "credibility problem" but he is confident the sport can rebuild its image in the lead-up to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Jones's appointment as Chief Executive was confirmed by Athletics Australia at the end of April after he had served in the position on an interim basis since December.

His move into the role in a full-time capacity followed Athletics Australia’s announcement that Craig Hilliard would be its new head coach.

Track and field in Australia’s troubled Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games campaign led to former Chief Executive Dallas O'Brien stepped down from his post.

Athletics Australia conducted an internal review of its Glasgow campaign, while former Australia cricket coach John Buchanan headed up an independent review into track and field commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) in partnership with Athletics Australia.

The Buchanan review issued a damning report in February, highlighting poor governance amid 16 recommendations and declaring Athletics Australia should only be guaranteed 60% of ASC funding in 2015/16 if it did not make progress with a reform process.

Jones acknowledges that Athletics Australia needed to improve its performance, however he believed it was already making positive steps in regaining the trust of the Australian sporting public.

Jones told the ABC “I think it's got a credibility problem ... a lot of sports go through issues and certainly Glasgow was a significant issue for this one.

"I'm not sure that that necessarily impacts future events. I think the issue for us is to address things within our control, making sure that we are properly prepared and properly represented at the major events.

"Credibility is one question but I think we need to focus on the things we can do to ensure we maximise those opportunities moving forward.

"(Glasgow) was damaging, there's no question, but I think if we put our best foot forward then that can be addressed."

Swimming Australia came away from the London Olympics with a damaged reputation in the wake of the stilnox affair and allegations of bullying within the team that won just a single gold medal in the pool.

It was also subjected to an internal and independent review, which were scathing of the sport's culture in Australia and led to changes at the administrative level and in its high performance unit.

Australia's performances at the international level in swimming have improved since London and Jones sees no reason why track and field cannot also turn around its fortunes.

He adds "I think there are lots of opportunities in athletics and we certainly want to ensure that in every area we are sort of kicking goals and clearly swimming has done a lot to reorganise itself.

"I think particularly what is interesting about swimming to me is they've done a lot to address the cultural issues they had. I think that, again, going back to that question of having a vision in place.

"I think it's important we get a consistent, positive culture through the sport and that is something that I see as a priority as part of our planning process.

"We need people sharing the same values and objectives and I think that is what swimming has started to do very well."

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