September 2008 Woman: Alison Burchell

Alison Burchell is a
compassionate individual who is determined to make a difference in sport, and
is the kind of sports administrator you want on your team. She is the Chief
Director for Client Services, Liaison, Events and Facilities, working closely
with federations with regards to education and training, club development, as
well as international liaison and international events.

Alison, previously with Disability Sport South Africa, ihas stayed in touch with disabled sport through her involvements with the Development Team of
the International Paralympic Committee, making a contribution to their
efforts in growing their sport.

Reflecting
on the 2008 Olympic Games, she feels the team has been unfairly criticized,
saying the team had done well, but it just didn’t translate into medals.

Speaking
on the state of women’s sport in South Africa, Alison feels the perceptions of
the public, sponsors, educators, and other role players need to change in order
for women’s sport to improve.

Her
advice to women keen to make it in sports administration is "unless women make
themselves available for positions, they will be overlooked". Alison says women
need self-confidence and the tools of trade to forge a successful career in the
world of sport.

Her
career highlights include being Assistant Chef de Mission to Team South Africa
for the Sydney Olympics and then Chef de Mission for the Athens Olympics four
years later.

Here’s
a proud South African who is driven by her passion to see South African sport
succeed. Her greatest ambition is always achieve her best and to assist others
in making the best of their lives.

Introducing
gsport’s September 2008 Woman, true sports supporter, Alison Burchell!

Alison, how long have you been
involved in sports administration?

I
first got involved back in 1991, when I was in Cape Town, and I got involved in
the periphery of the Western Cape Squash Rackets Federation. At that time, if
you remember, SACOS was quite strong, and there was a big debate between SACOS
and the National Sports Congress. So we had to re-establish a new squash
federation in the Western Cape, which was a very strong SACOS stronghold, and
that’s when I got involved, probably around December 1991.

Does your passion come from being
involved in sport, or are you a natural administrator?

It’s
probably a combination, certainly as I was growing up, sport was a very
important part of my life, but then as you get older and the body parts don’t
work so well, it means that you have to look at the ways to be able to
contribute, and indeed, to enjoy the sports context, so that’s where I got
involved in sports administration.

As a youngster, what were the
primary sports you participated in?

I
used to do a little of everything, I did hockey, I did a funny game called lacrosse,
which is an American-Indian game, I did tennis, I did athletics, I did
volleyball, occasionally I did swimming, but the swimming pool at school was
horrendous, so I used to spend my afternoon crying from too much chlorine after
I’d been to swimming, so I didn’t like that very much (laughs).

What were you best at?

Ah,
it’s generally hockey or lacrosse that I was best at.

Did you represent provincial, or
national teams?

I
was actually educated in the UK, so I represented the provincial team in lacrosse,
and obviously the first team at school in lacrosse.

What is your current role at Sports
and Recreation South Africa (SRSA)?

It’s
a bit of a mouthful, but I’m the Chief Director for Client Services, Liaison,
Events and Facilities, so essentially, I’m working with the federations, in
education and training, club development, as well as international liaison and
international events, and looking at what we can do to try to get people to
play sport in the right places through facility provision.

So what you’re doing is dealing
with grass-roots issues, as well as leading international intermediary
services:- What is your feeling about stimulating sport in South Africa?

Well,
to me it’s fundamentally important. We’ve got a very good system, in terms of
working with the Department of Education, to try to make sure that we get
physical education taught properly, and hopefully that means that we can start
working on the competitive side, and teaching people skills and fitness they
need to learn, in the competition side of sport.

For
me, and for many others, sport has been good in terms of teaching a level of
discipline, besides all of the hand-eye co-ordination, balance, motor skills
and that type of stuff. But it’s a discipline, you learn team-work, you learn
to respect other people for what they’re able to do, not necessarily for who
they are, and all that helps build you as an individual who is hopefully worth
knowing.

Alison, you were heavily involved
in Paralympic sport previously, and you were specifically involved with
Disability Sport South Africa (DISSA): Are you still involved with it directly?

It’s
more indirect now, because obviously I can’t fill two positions, from a
government perspective. We support the Paralympics through SASCOC, so that’s
where I’m on my way to now, to be a part of government delegation to support
the team.

What do you put the success of
Paralympic sport in South Africa down to?

There
are a couple of things, number one is I think by the nature of Paralympics
sport, the athletes have had to overcome certain odds, certain obstacles that
are put in their way, they’ve had to adapt to a different form of life and a
different way of living, and I think that has given them a certain amount of
ability to focus and to concentrate and to achieve. So, that’s one of the
things …

Obviously,
there’s also the sort of macabre sense of humour that some of the athletes have
that also make a lot of people more even, so you don’t get the Prima Donna-type
of approach in the Paralympic team, because you’ll be brought into line pretty
quickly.

But
in the context of many athletes having had to go though rehabilitation, that
also teaches you a different type of discipline and for them to demonstrate
that they are real people, that they are real athletes, is always a driving
force. There’s a need for that type of recognition, and I think that pushes the
athletes higher and stronger than in some other instances. By comparison, if
all things were equal, they’d probably do very well in terms of achievements.

Alison, perhaps as a backwash from
the disappointing performance of Team South Africa at the Olympics, there’s a
lot of focus and attention on the Paralympic athletes, perhaps to save some
dignity for South Africa:-
What do you expect of the Paralympic team at the Games this year?

We
went through the same thing, if you remember, back in 2000 after Sydney, where
there was a perception that the Olympic team didn’t do as well as people would
have liked, and there was a tremendous amount of pressure on the Paralympic Team.

I
remember being asked by the media, ‘How many medals do you think you’re going
to win?’, and so on, and my response was that the athletes would do their best,
but that I don’t have a crystal ball, so I’m not able to predict which athletes
are going to win which medal on which day, but at the end of the day, the
athletes would do their best for their country and for themselves, and I think
that sort of situation applies now.

But
the other thing today is that, while again it’s a perception that the Olympic
team hasn’t done well, they have done well, but it hasn’t translated into
medals, and that’s an issue that we would have to look at, have a look at our
aspirations, and have a look at what can be done to ensure that sport is
professional, in terms of the coaches, in terms of the athletes, and in terms
of the administrators.

Speaking personally, Alison,
describe your three biggest career highlights:

I
think number one would have been being the assistant chef de mission for the
Sydney team, which was then followed by being the chef for the Athens team.

Then
the other component I think is being involved in the Development Committee of
the International Paralympic Committee, because that gives me a kind of a
bird’s-eye view of where we are, and in terms of developing Paralympic sport
around the world. That gets to be quite interesting, and again it’s somewhere
where I think where I contribute, but certainly somewhere where I learn a lot.

You’ve obviously had to face a lot
of challenges in your career: As a personal quality, how do you challenges that
present themselves?

What
frame of mind I’m in at that particular time (laughs)! If matters determine
that they seem to be insurmountable, essentially I just take a step backward,
and then say, ‘OK, now how does one achieve this?’

Because
it’s important for us to achieve this, and then I change my mind-set and say
‘This is a bigger challenge that needs to be addressed, and I’m going to do it,
in the best way possible, and I’m going to pull in the people that can assist
in doing that.
So, that’s kind of my approach, but for everyone there are those challenges,
and each person deals with them in a different way. Some people bail, and some
people actually rise to the occasion, and I try to rise to the occasion.

Do you think we’re doing enough to
improve women’s sport in South Africa?

I
think we’ve come a long way in terms of women’s sport in South Africa, and
there’s a hell of a long way to go still. In the end, it’s something you see in
Paralympic sport, the perceptions that people have (of disability).

So
some people will say that men’s tennis is far more exciting than women’s
tennis, but if you remember the days of Martina Navratilova, when she probably
rocked the boat in terms of women’s tennis in all sorts of ways, she had a very
very big following.

So,
for me it’s a matter of changing people’s perceptions, saying that women’s
sport is just as awesome as men’s sport, in the same way as we have probably
been able to say to a large extent that Paralympic sport or Deaflympic sport is
just as important as regular or able-bodied sport.

I
think that if we can address the perceptions, and it’s the perceptions in the
minds of the media, perceptions in the minds of sponsors, and to some extent
the perceptions in the minds of the educator, because they’re the ones that
have a major impact on the kids as they grow up; if we can manage to change
those perceptions, we’ll be able to move forward quite far.

What would your advice be to women
keen to follow a career in sports administration?

Tongue
in cheek, I would say that they need to think again (laughs)! But on a serious
note, unless women in particular make themselves available for positions, they
will continue to be overlooked. Women must ensure that they have the self-confidence
and the tools of the trade in their back pocket, to ensure they are selected
and appointed to positions where they can make a contribution, and benefit the
sport and benefit themselves as a result of it.

Alison, who would you like to
acknowledge as people who have supported you in your career?

Sjoe,
from my perspective, having had dealings with Corne’ Rossouw at the University
of Stellenbosch, she was the chef in Sydney, because she was very much one of
my mentors, people like Mary Peters from Northern Ireland (Commonwealth gold
medallist, and participated in the Munich Games), whom I was very lucky to have
dealings with in ’99 and 2000 as well, and then a lady called Carol Mushett,
currently the chief executive officer of Blaze Sports Clubs of America, which
is to do with disability in the ‘States. Those would be the current people.

Historically,
watching some of the athletes on TV over the years has been an inspiration.
Obviously there was Sheelagh Davson, the head of PE (physical education at high
school), it’s quite amazing that I can remember her name, she certainly had a
very strong impact on the way that I perceive my ability to achieve in various
ways …

And
at my primary school as well, I can’t remember … I think it was Pearson, Mrs
Pearson, so, over the years there’re have been different people coming in and
out of your life, having different impacts on the way that you see life. But
these most probably had the biggest impact.

gsport strives to promote
femininity, believing that femininity and women in sport are not incompatible:
How would you define femininity, and what role does it play in your life?

I
think that femininity in sport is an acknowledgement that there are in fact
differences between men and women, but it shouldn’t have an impact on the way
that people are perceived. So, for example, there are some people who say that
in order to improve the viewership of netball, they need to have more slinky
outfits.

And
I think that’s perhaps the wrong way of looking at it. What you should be looking
at is how people play that particular sport. So, for me in terms of femininity,
it’s an approach to the sport, rather than how you look, how you play the
sport, how you view the game strategically, how you’re trying to control the
game, etcetera. It’s most certainly not how you look on the playing field.

How do you keep fit?

I
try to go to the gym in the mornings, because if I try to go to the gym at any
other time of the day, then I’ll never get there! Unfortunately I don’t have a
huge amount of time at the moment to play sport.

What are your favourite spectators
sports?

Obviously
I’d have to say squash, but I also enjoy watching diving, certainly at the
Olympics- That was quite good fun! Watching athletics, and hockey would be the
other ones.

Do you have favourite sports stars?

I
think that the best answer to that question is that all women sports stars are
important, and there are some that are coming up, some that have made it and
some that are retiring.

Who are your role models?
I have
a variety of role models (laughs), and it will depend on the context! So,
Reverend Stofile is one of those role models, to some extent Mululeki George,
Danny Jordaan, I have a lot of time for people like Clare Digby, Vijay Gajjar,
Mveleli Ncula, so those various people that have a different role to play, and
a different example to set.

A final question: What is your
greatest outstanding ambition?

Haven’t
thought about that one … At the moment it’s a question of keeping my head above
water. For me, as I said earlier, it’s always to be able to do my best, in
whatever context I find myself, it’s important for me to try to achieve my
best, and to do my best in the context, being able to support others to achieve
as well.