well done Mrs Daley.

Mrs Daley's open letter to the press in defence of her son, and his right to earn a living through his "celebratie" status I think was spot on. There is far to much pressure put on athletes by the back room staff who are only concerned with resaults in order to maintian their very lucrative employeement. What do you think? In my opinion sport would benefit from less administration by has beens, or as is the situation with the recently departed CEO of the BJA those who never have been. Leave issues of performance and training to the players and their individual coaches.

In don't know about the financial arrangements to support swimmers and divers, but I do know of full time judo players living in very difficult financial circumstances - there has been much publicity about Karina Bryant's struggles to afford transport for example, using a donated car that eventually clapped out and having to rely on lifts from family and friends. She is not a kid, she is a professional athlete and olympic medallist and ambassador the judo in the UK and has been for many years. I can't help but contrast this with the figures bandied about for salaries of the higher-ups at the BJA and payments made at the end of contracts etc. Why are those who train and compete of less value to the organisation than those who sit in meetings?

I agree that Mrs Daley was spot on, and when you look at things like Ashley McKenzie's Big Brother appearance and calendar and so forth, can you really blame them for wanting to supplement their income? There will always be those that 'just want to be famous', but there are a whole load more that just want the money to be able to focus on their training and not worry about their rent, food bills, and travel costs.

A link or some more details please for those of us on the outside. Or is this still more JudoForum insider information.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2259777/Tom-Daleys-mum-Debbie-hits-David-Sparkes-Splash-criticism--EXCLUSIVE.html

JudoMum wrote:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2259777/Tom-Daleys-mum-Debbie-hits-David-Sparkes-Splash-criticism--EXCLUSIVE.html

tx. will read now.