Today I responded to a post on the Fred Miranda Sports Corner forum. The poster was asking for reviews of his portfolio prior to submitting it to Sportsshooter. One of the photographs is of a triple jumper which I felt suffered from two faults - a busy background and poor framing.
Other athletes and objects such as cones in the background of a photograph cause the eye of the viewer to be distracted from the object of the picture - the athlete. Yes, it is virtually impossible to get a completely clear background at an Athletics meeting, but it is worth changing shooting position and angle to try to minimise any background distractions. If you are using an SLR camera this could also be helped by increasing the aperture to give a narrower depth of field and (depending to some extent on the lens) better bokeh for the background which will ease the distraction.
Framing is a simpler issue - the picture is of a Triple Jumper but the pit is not in the shot and therefore, for me, some of the context of the event is lost.