Athlete Selection

What is Athlete Selection?

• Are your Athlete Selection Policies and Procedures fair and transparent?
• Do they protect athletes, selectors and your organisation?
• Are the right people involved in the decision making?
• Would your selection processes stand up to scrutiny if challenged?

Due to the broad nature of sporting activities, governing or umbrella bodies of sport may have different approaches to how they select their athletes for relevant competitions, championships, tournaments, games or events.

An Athlete Selection Policy determines the basis for selection decisions, and governs the athlete’s rights in relation to such decisions. It could be expected that coaches, and the athletes themselves would have a clear understanding of athlete selection and its components such as selection policies and procedures, and pre-selection preparation. This includes selection criteria, athlete profiles, position descriptions, and post-selection follow-up.

You can find a range of Athlete Selection Policies from governing bodies:

Table Tennis England
Scottish Athletics
Badminton Ireland
Horse Sport Ireland

For further advice and support any interested stakeholders can contact the following organisations.

Just Sport Ireland – JSI is an independent dispute resolution service for Irish Sport offering both a Mediation and Arbitration facility.

Sport Resolutions UK – Sport Resolutions is the independent, not-for-profit, dispute resolution service for sport in the UK.