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Hi all, We hope you are ok and remaining healthy during this extremely difficult time. You will have seen the recent announcement from the AOC that athletes should prepare for a Tokyo Olympic Games in the northern summer of 2021. Paralympics Australia have also made a statement supporting the postponement of the Paralympic Games until 2021. We expect this to be confirmed by the IOC and IPC. This is obviously a message and outcome that no one wanted, and extremely disappointing, however it does provide some clarity for athletes, coaches, support staff and their families. What this decision means is that everyone in the athletics world can focus on their own health and that of the wider population, rather than continue to prepare for their biggest competition in a very compromised training environment. Many of you will know that tracks and gyms throughout Australia have been closed; with more likely to close over the coming days. With this recent announcement, and the expectation that World Athletics will make an announcement on the World U20 Championships very soon, we ask you respect these closures in the interests of public health. We know these are challenging times personally and athletically. We are not in a position to anticipate when competition will be able to resume, we have given until 1 May as a minimum, however it is extremely unlikely AA will push for any high level competitions over this winter; especially after today’s announcement. We will confirm this in the next 48 hours. Athletics Australia is also deferring the NASS selection meeting until September 2020 and will maintain all athletes currently on the NASS program until that selection meeting. Looking after your mental health during this time is extremely important. We know that it can feel stressful and overwhelming during this time and we can all be affected differently. We want to support athletes and coaches during this time and you can access mental health information from the following websites; www.headspace.org.au, Australian Psychological Society www.psychology.org.au, beyond blue www.beyondblue.org.au.
Simple tips to maintain a healthy mindset during this time are to be mindful of exposure to information through social media, (it can be helpful to take a break from the 24-hour news cycle), stay connected with people via FaceTime or on the phone and it is important to have down time. We encourage everyone to spend time with their families if at all possible, especially over the next few weeks. We have created a new High Performance updates section in the Athletics Australia website. This can be found within The Stadium; COVID- 19 tab where we are updating our community with information regarding the Pandemic. We’ll be updating the High Performance section every two days with relevant information, even if it is to say we have no further information. We know athletics coaches are innovative and resourceful however with continued likely closures this may challenge our coaches to continue to program without the daily interaction with your athletes. We know you will support each other – coaching networks are extremely strong. If there is anything we can do to assist please let us know.
Kind regards, Andrew Faichney Head of High Performance Systems
Christian Malcolm Head of Performance and Coaching
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