UK Athletics has announced that Paula Dunn has been appointed interim head coach and will lead the performance programme through the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games next summer
Wednesday 18 October 2023 12:14, UK
Paula Dunn has been appointed interim head coach at UK Athletics following the departure of Stephen Maguire.
The 58-year-old, who was Paralympic head coach for 10 years before taking the role of team leader for major athletics championships in 2022, will lead the performance programme through next year's Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
"I'm looking forward to working with the performance staff and athletes once more at this incredibly important time for the GB and NI team," Dunn said.
"The results from Paris (World Para Athletics Championships) and Budapest (World Championships) this summer were excellent, and I want to ensure we keep providing world-class support in the approach to Paris and help every athlete perform at their very best.
"There isn't a moment to lose, and I am excited to rejoin UKA and help the team to succeed."
UKA chief executive Jack Buckner said: "Paula has a huge amount of experience in leading athletics and her track record in performance means she is the best person to oversee the performance programme towards Paris.
"2024 is a very important year for the sport with a home World Indoor Championships, a Para World Championships, European Championships as well as the Olympics and Paralympics. She is coming in at a critical time for the performance team, but her knowledge and experience will make a huge impact."
UKA announced on Tuesday that Maguire was leaving his position as technical director with immediate effect, less than two months after overseeing a very successful World Championships in Budapest, with the British team equalling their best ever medal haul of 10.
Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith labelled the "snap decision" as "incredibly short-sighted" on Instagram and called for an explanation from UKA.
Michelle Yeoh, the first Asian actress to win an Oscar, joined the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday after being voted in as a member at a ceremony in Mumbai.
She was one of eight new proposed members to join the Olympic body at its session in the Indian financial capital.
"I remember when someone asked me, 'how did you become an actress?' I always said, 'I never dreamt of being an actress, but as a child I always dreamt of being an Olympian,'" Yeoh said. "Sports was very much part of my life growing up, I was very much involved with squash, athletics, swimming and diving.
"It has always been there and growing, but how do I find a way to join this (IOC) family? They are very tight-knit and also they have to be very sure that you share their passion, you share their commitment and ideology. So it took me a little while to ensure this is what I do believe in and I need to be part of this family."
A former Malaysian junior squash champion, Yeoh won the Oscar for best lead actress earlier this year for her role in the film, "Everything Everywhere All at Once".
She got her Hollywood breakthrough when she was cast as the first ethnic Chinese Bond girl in 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies" opposite Pierce Brosnan.
Yeoh, also a producer and a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, starred in martial arts movie "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", the 2005 period drama "Memoirs of a Geisha" and the 2018 romantic comedy, "Crazy Rich Asians". Yeoh's favourite sport when she was growing up was squash.
"But then two knee surgeries, a bad back," she added. "Now I do a lot of free shadow-boxing because I still do martial arts in my movies. So I keep up with hiking and swimming, which is one of the more gentle sports to do."
The 61-year-old is married to Jean Todt, the former head of the FIA, the governing body for motorsport, which was recognised by the IOC in 2013.
She joins judoka Yael Arad, who won Israel's first Olympic medal, Hungarian businessman and sports administrator Balasz Furjes, Cecilia Roxana Tait Villacorta, a former Olympic volleyball medallist and politician from Peru, and German sports entrepreneur Michael Mronz as the five new individual members.
Furjes and Mronz have also led efforts, unsuccessful so far, to get the Olympics to Hungary and back to Germany respectively. Sweden's Petra Soerling, head of the International Table Tennis Federation, and South Korean Kim Jae-youl, president of the International Skating Union, joined through their function as heads of an international federation.
