The Queen’s Baton Relay forms part of the Games’ cultural programme of events


GREG WARNECKE HEAD OF SPORT


What is your role at Glasgow 2014? As head of sport I’m responsible for planning and facilitating all of what you would call the “endpoints” – to make sure the athletes will be able to perform at their very best on the field of play during those 11 days next year. I see my job as being the champion for


all the athletes. My team and I need to be able to make sure we can educate our Organising Committee colleagues on the technical requirements of each sport as well as the specifications of each interna- tional federation. Also, we need to be aware of the


unique requirements of the athletes themselves. An athlete competing in an aquatics discipline will have very differ- ent needs to an athlete in wrestling. So it’s everything from understanding


the habits and demands of each sport, working with the requirements and the expectations of the athletes and also the ability to take that in to an organising committee perspective. That can be quite challenging.


Issue 4 2013 © cybertrek 2013


What are those challenges? The biggest challenge for me is to achieve integration – to make sure that all 17 of our sports will get equal exposure and attention. We hear some people talk about major sports or minor sports and we try get rid of that language in a Games environment because we have to do 261 medal events, including 22 integrated para- sport medal events which is the largest in any Commonwealth Games. Every medal will be won by an athlete


who’s been working hard to achieve success. Every sport is equal and I think the biggest challenge is to make sure our internal team – as well as the press and media – will be eager to showcase all 17 Commonwealth sports. It’s a challenge but also a great opportunity.


Do you work with the organising committee’s other departments? We work very closely with all depart- ments. We’ve just gone through what we call “venue-isation” – a typical Games jargon. It means venue familia- risation and includes a programme of on-site training and induction joint- ly held with venue management and stakeholders. Our first phase of “venue- isation” took place within the sports team and now we’ve embedded the


teams working with the venues and security. So all three are now working together in a close-knit group. We also have a number of different


internal management forums where we work together with a number of different organisational groups which come together to be able to make decisions. One example of these, at board level, is our Athletes’ Advisory Committee – chaired by Rhona Simpson, Scotland’s most capped hockey player. Her presence means that we have an athlete representative on the board.


Will your role change during the Games? It will become one of communication, command and control – a typical Games- type structure where I will spend, unfortunately, most of the Games sitting in a room full of television screens, inside a sort of mission control. I will be relying on my team to be able to deliver all the plans across the various arenas we have; the fields of play, the village, the sport information centre and the Games hospital. A friend of mine said: “oh, I’ll get to


see you on the TV,” and I said no, if you see me on the TV that means some- thing’s gone really badly wrong. So my role is very much in the background – but my team will be visible.


Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital 35


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84