TV
Sally Gunnell says she decided to quit the BBC after poor training and being undermined.
The former athlete is to leave her £60,000-a-year job interviewing athletes at the end of her contract, following ridicule in the press and what she sees as bad treatment from the corporation.
"For the past two years I have felt very undermined," she explained. "I felt my role was being diminished and I wasn't going anywhere."
"I'm an athlete but I was thrown into a situation where people criticised what I did," continued the 39-year-old. "You would have expected the BBC to stick up for me a bit, to give me some training, to look after me and help me. But it was a case of 'Just get on with it'."
"All I received from the BBC was a couple of training courses that lasted about an hour," she added. "They never made suggestions or went back over the tapes. People told me to just be myself and that's what I did."
An example of criticism of Gunnell's style is one writer's joke: "Kelly Holmes has extended her races by several metres and tends to sprint straight past Gunnell and out of the stadium."
She said: "The criticism wasn't a factor in me deciding to leave. But it does hurt when my family is affected."
The former athlete is to leave her £60,000-a-year job interviewing athletes at the end of her contract, following ridicule in the press and what she sees as bad treatment from the corporation.
"For the past two years I have felt very undermined," she explained. "I felt my role was being diminished and I wasn't going anywhere."
"I'm an athlete but I was thrown into a situation where people criticised what I did," continued the 39-year-old. "You would have expected the BBC to stick up for me a bit, to give me some training, to look after me and help me. But it was a case of 'Just get on with it'."
"All I received from the BBC was a couple of training courses that lasted about an hour," she added. "They never made suggestions or went back over the tapes. People told me to just be myself and that's what I did."
An example of criticism of Gunnell's style is one writer's joke: "Kelly Holmes has extended her races by several metres and tends to sprint straight past Gunnell and out of the stadium."
She said: "The criticism wasn't a factor in me deciding to leave. But it does hurt when my family is affected."
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