EIS statement on Government return to training guidance

The government has today published guidance on the measures and mitigations that need to be in place to allow elite athletes and support staff to return appropriately to individual training.

The guidance document is intended to act as a framework for each sport and organisation to make a risk assessment to determine whether they are able to ensure a suitable environment for individual training. As such the document represents the guidance on the first stage only of any return to training programme.

Nigel Walker, EIS National Director, said:

“We welcome the publication of this guidance and the hard work of the experts from across Olympic, Paralympic and professional sport in producing it, but we are conscious that there is plenty of work to be done before we can be confident that training environments are suitable for our people as well as athletes and support staff.

“We will continue to work in partnership with the National Governing Bodies and the landlords of our EIS High Performance Centres to assess how and when a return to training can take place in line with these guidelines.

“We understand the publication of this guidance does not mean that all Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes should return to training straight away, and we expect different sports will return at different times.

“We will now take time to continue to work with sports and to understand how we can best implement these guidelines before taking any action.”