SU Spring Elections 2025 Interviews: Ollie Seal, VP Sports

In the run-up to the Warwick Students’ Union (SU) Spring Elections, The Boar and RAW 1251AM collaborated to offer all Full-Time Officer (FTO) candidates the opportunity to be interviewed.

Ollie Seal, the only candidate running for the position of Vice President for Sports, spoke to The Boar to discuss their platform. The interview covered their key priorities for making sports at Warwick more accessible to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and tackling a “toxic culture” within sports clubs as well as their unconventional journey into FTO candidacy.

What are your key manifesto pledges?

Seal began: “I have two proper manifesto pledges; those mainly focus around the economic and social barriers into sports.” They highlighted the number of students on campus who were yet to engage in sports at Warwick at all (including themselves) a situation the candidate attributed to a high price of participation on campus: “it just costs too much, simply”.

They also sought to address what they labelled a “toxic and elitist culture” around sports at Warwick, that “push people away” from joining clubs.

How do you plan to make sport at Warwick more accessible to students, especially with regards to the price of joining clubs and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis?

They went on to outline their plan to “establish a pot of money”, separate from any existing scholarships or funds, to allow people from “disadvantaged backgrounds and underprivileged areas” to access sports. The SU’s Sportswear For All Fund does offer some financial support in regards to clothing and equipment.

Seal emphasised the importance of supporting students beyond those just “desiring to be athletes”. They pledged work both with the University and within the SU to identify key areas that would enable lowering the costs of joining the gym and hiring sports facilities as well as cutting the price of the Sports Federation fee.

If elected to be Sports Officer, what would your strategy be for creating gender equality within sports at Warwick?

Describing what they saw as a prevalence of “harmful behaviour” within sports clubs at Warwick, Seal proposed that alongside “good conversations” to identify key issues, sanctions should be imposed by the SU to hold accountable clubs that “don’t do enough to stop toxic culture”.

They suggested that “proper action” to match commitments to stop such behaviour “before it happens” had lacked in previous years. “I can absolutely within my power as Sports VP, try [to take] action to stop gender inequality and discrimination from happening,” they added.

How will you ensure that sports clubs are more inclusive and accessible to students that did not play much or any sport before university?

Seal initially praised existing efforts to involve students in sports at university, highlighting the value of Warwick Sport’s Rock Up and Play sessions as well as clubs like Mixed Netball and various opportunities to play football at different levels. 

However, they expressed concerns with “societies that don’t do enough to encourage inexperienced members” and advocated working with clubs to establish “specific” support for students new to their sport.

How would you seek to support and improve sports clubs’ performances in tournaments such as BUCS in the year ahead?

The candidate admitted they were “not sure what they would do” to boost the performance of Warwick sides but proposed efforts to “encourage people to come along” to spectate BUCS fixtures with the intention of bolstering turnouts and fostering greater interest in sports clubs.

The last few years has seen some complaints about the way some sports clubs run their socials, such as circling and initiations. How would you ensure that execs create a safe environment for other students and do not abuse their powers?

“I think it’s probably one of the biggest barriers to sports,” Seal stated, highlighting what they saw as “very intense sporting events” in addition to the practice of circling and initiations. 

“I wouldn’t want to stop some of these events,” the student clarified, adding “they are fun, a lot of people do enjoy them which is brilliant.” Instead, Seal proposed encouraging sports clubs to also hold “more inclusive events”, suggesting these could result in “bigger turnouts” and be “beneficial to all” in the long run.

They also sought to bring light to the “discriminatory” nature of some of these events, suggesting “imposing rules and regulations” on those that “target” female, LGBTQ+ and minority ethnic students. 

It’s no secret you initially intended to stand as a joke candidate for VP Sports, why should your candidacy be taken seriously now?

“I did originally run as a joke,” Seal confirmed, “but then I realised that I could properly make a difference to sports on campus.” They pointed to recent attempts to garner “loads of opinions” from students to inform a more meaningful candidacy.

They concluded: “these are real concerns that people have come to me with”; the candidate emphasised, claiming they were now “properly dedicated” to a more earnest campaign. 

This interview, along with all other interviews for Vice President positions, can be watched in full using the link here.

Read Ollie Seal’s manifesto here.