Steffensen punished for blowing whistle on athletics culture

No-one is heralding AA as an outstanding organisation. They have been, for years, the basket case of sports admin in this country. But this article is not about that. It's titled: "Steffensen punished for blowing whistle on athletics culture" It's a defence piece straight from Steff PR - and it ignores crucial facts and relevant background info to give it proper context. That's what people are criticising.

Good to see everyone focussing on the short comings of our world class non-white athletes whilst avoiding the inconvenient truth about AA which is basically that they suck. I don't expect more from JT, but AA, a "professional" organisation, oh dear oh dear.

Just when I thought Australian journalistic standards had hit rock bottom, along comes Jocelyn with this load of rubbish. A pattern of behaviour over a large number of years, combined with poor performances led to his non-selection for the individual event - but this can only be explained by "discrimination"? AA was proved to be correct, both by an INDEPENDENT investigation, and the results of the selected individual at the ACTUAL olympic games. It's such a shame that a number of athletes in this country always play the race or minority card whenever they fail (some even do so when they fail to their own race or minority)...... And John's performance in the relay was third rate to boot. You should be embarrassed, Jocelyn.

Harry how is that relevent to this article? Are you at least trying to relate to the article or simply trying to put in your two cents regardless. Steffensen isn't an aborigine.....

WOW! It was with the promise of finding out what was said to Steffensen in Beijing and the cover blown from AA's 'culture that I opened the Roar website for the first time'. Alas its just another piece of sycophantic journalism. Its that bad the author wont or cant name who said what to whom for fear of legal action "John’s reference to a racism issue stemmed from the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008" No witnesses willing to testify, no names and no pack drill. At least Ive learned something , my first visit to ROAR will be my last.

Agree the posters above and below. You are clearly a friend and so your view is blinded by your support of him. Does racisim exist in this world? Of course. I watched this great little piece on youtube yesterday by a very articulate and funny african american boy going by the name "Kid President" (search in you tube for Kid President Pep talk - great). It was funny, cute and uplifting but many of the comments below were filled with racist remarks and hate. Such a sad blight on the world, but it is still a minority who are like this. But its not racist to discipline someone for poor behaviour and that is what Steffanson is guilty of here and over a prolonged period of time, and he has payed the price as have many other white athletes in the past. And as stated, this was an independent review wa sit not?

"but it also undermines the greater public’s faith that elite sport is governed by professional and broadminded people without personal agendas." I think you will find that the greater publics faith has been satisfied. Racism should not be tolerated, nor should generalisations or derogatory remarks that may offend. However, the "greater public" likes even less when self-important sportsman who have not achieved the heights they perhaps could have manipulate and complain about issues they have largely brought upon themselves. The issue of racism from 4 years ago, while distasteful and wrong, should have been dealt with at that time. That Steffensen brought it up 4 years later and only after he was having issues with selections just makes him look like a spoilt brat, and detracts from his allegations somewhat.

Agreed. Jocelyn, you've written a few articles defending Steff, but this one looks like it was written by Anthony Mundine. I'm afraid Steff was made to look like a complete goose when complaining about losing his individual 400 spot. Firstly, the highly promising (and well liked) 19yo World Junior silver medallist went on to make the Olympic final. Secondly, John ran poorly in the relay. He whinged about the selection, but AA were proven right.

This article is factually incorrect. Steve Hooker has NEVER confirmed that Steffensen was racially vilified. He did confirm that Steffensen had an argument with an official, but he wasn't even in the room so he has no idea what was said. This assumption that Steffensen and other athletes who are out of favour somehow get the raw prawn come selection time is just bogus. AA receive their federal funding based on performances at the Olympics, so there is no way they don't select the athlete they believe will achieve the best result for Australia possible. It would be cutting their own throats to play favourites at the risk of selecting a lesser athlete. Besides, if Steffensen fulfills the selection criteria, there isn't even an argument about his selection. The fact is that he didn't therefore he has to depend on the selectors assessment of his condition and chances. Do the time or don't whine. The fact that the racism issue was raised by Steffensen immediately after his non-selection for London makes a mockery of the author's suggestion that he was just trying to make a broader point about racism in sport and society. A bevy of journalists, who are relatively independent, all reached the same conclusion that Steffensen was saying he wasn't selected because of his skin colour. Steffensen also never saw fit to correct them when this was reported widely. Clearly Steffensen believes his non-selection was motivated by race. AA therefore did the right thing by having an independent investigator look at these claims. They found nothing to back-up his concerns. Case closed.

As a naturalised Australian I see two sides of Australian Society. A general acceptance of all ethnic backgrounds, working towards a multi cultural society and on the other a general dislike by white Australians of anything or anyone Aboriginal who wishes to stand up for their culture or rights. I am glad that this negative view is not generally shared by the younger educated groups and hope that in the future all Australians will be accepting of our Aboriginal Heritage.

Jocelyn, I realise you're Steffenson's friend but this is another very poor article. It ignores completely his behaviour and pattern of behaviour over a long time. *If* there was a AA employee that made a racist or derogatory remark about Steff in Beijing, then he should have lodged a complaint then and there. Fact is, he was dirty they gave the 2012 spot to a younger kid... and so publicly complained, then threatened to boycott the team and finally dug up an insult from 4 years earlier. This bloke has startling similarities to another athlete who has been in the press lately.

Another case of percieved racism. It is invented to cover up ones faults or short comings. I believe an independant trubunal investigated this and found AA had no case to answer. Were they racist to? Fact is Steffenson did not meet the qualifying protocol for the Olympics, he did not like that, so looked for excuses. Calling AA a racist organisation is an insult to all the Australian (no matter what heritage or culture) athletes who have succeeded before them. The Cathy Freemans of this world for instance. Mundine, Steffenson, seems to be a pattern hey. People who think they are better then what they actually are, so need to find reasons why they do not succeed at the highest levels instead of just accepting they are elite athletes who are just short of being superstars.