The BAC works with around 80 Athlete Representatives from across 34 World-Class Programmes (Olympic and Paralympics) to ensure that the interests and opinions of our membership are represented and communicated to senior management within National Governing Bodies.Recently-retired middle distance runner and London Olympian, Hannah England, was elected Chair of UK Athletics' Athletes' Commission in 2017. Here, she tells us about her motivation, and how the athlete voice mechanism has developed:"I was motivated to stand for our UK Athletics Athletes' Commission because I wanted to use my passion and experience to optimise the journey for our athletes. "I wanted to be actively involved in promoting the athlete voice to the decision makers in our sport in the hope that this would form an important part of shaping the direction of our sport. "As a group we have worked really hard to build a reputation for providing useful and important perspective to our governing body. We are a big sport with a really diverse athlete community and many different stakeholders, but I do feel the athlete voice is the strongest it has been. "Personally, sometimes, it has felt frustrating that things haven't moved as quickly as we would have liked, and the vastness of areas we see the need for improvement is often overwhelming, but keeping at it and driving for small, but important changes month on month has been ultimately really satisfying."Practically, being chair of our commission has really helped me develop my communication skills and gain some great experience to set myself up for my retirement last year."If you are interested in becoming Athlete Representatives in your own sport, you can find full details here, and contact the BAC's Athlete Engagement Manager, Kristian Thomas, for further discussion.