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TOUCHLINE
ISSUE 19 | NOV 2014 |
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ASHLEY
METCALFE
BRITISH WEIGHT LIFTING CEO
WEIGHT LIFTING FOCUS
P
lease can you provide a little background
on yourself? You had a very successful
career as a first class cricketer, so why and
how did you get involved in weightlifting?
I have always had a tremendous passion for sport and I
enjoy the commercial world of business – so to end up as
CEO of an Olympic National Governing Body is almost the
perfect role. British Weight Lifting is a sport with a long and
noble heritage and like any business, it needs to be run
with sound governance and with financial stability in mind.
It is an organisation with tremendous potential and a huge
amount of tradition. Most excitingly it is a sport on the rise
- it has an excellent geographical reach and offers a sport
accessible to all, whatever age, gender or ability. Whilst it is
great to see our elite lifters perform more competitively on
the International stage, it is also very rewarding to see our
participation figures grow ahead of target.
Weightlifting really appeals because it is truly a sport for all
– from Olympic lifters to grass roots level it can help those
involved be a little stronger, fitter and healthier, which is
massively positive.
How does British Weight Lifting currently
compare to the best countries in the World? Who
are they?
We will always face tough competition on the international
stage and like most sports, weightlifting has its nations that
tend to dominate, with the likes of China and North Korea
amongst them.
We’ve also recently witnessed a growth of the sport in
a number of post-Soviet States, with Russian athletes
dominating last year’s World Championships. In the recent
Commonwealth Games, British Weight Lifters had their most
successful competition for 12 years with Zoe Smith winning
a gold and Ben Watson a bronze. Nigeria also remain the
ones to beat in the para-powerlifting competitions, winning
all four gold medals at last summer’s Commonwealth
Games. However we do boast one World Champion in para-
powerlifting in Ali Jawad, who is the current world record
holder at the 59kg category.
How inclusive is the sport? Is it just for a certain
demographic?
Far from it – we work hard to dispel the stereotypes that
have accompanied weightlifting for many years and it
truly is a sport for both men and women; we’ve actually
seen a significant increase in the number of female
participants over the last few months and our recent English
Championships attracted the highest number of female
athletes we’ve ever had at a national competition.
We also recently launched a new talent ID initiative, Golden
Chance, which is focused on finding female weightlifting
TOUCHLINE INTERVIEWED BRITISH WEIGHT LIFTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER ASHLEY
METCALFE AT THE RECENTLY HELD ENGLISH WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN
CASTLEFORD, YORKSHIRE TO HEAR MORE ON THE CURRENT STATE OF PLAY IN THE SPORT.
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