BOARD members of British Cycling made a “shocking and inexcusable” decision to reverse findings of an investigation into the conduct of technical director Shane Sutton, it has been reported.
A leaked draft copy of an independent review, led by British Cycling’s grievance officer Alex Russell, found “considerably more” than one of the nine claims against Sutton by former track star Jess Varnish could be proven.
It emerged in December that Australian Sutton had been found guilty of one count of using inappropriate language but that insufficient evidence was found to support eight other charges. The ruling upset both Sutton, who has denied bullying athletes, and Varnish.
Varnish’s hope of qualifying for the Rio Olympics in the team sprint were ended at the Track World Championships last March.
Her funding was not renewed a month later, and Varnish reacted by claiming Sutton told her to “go and have a baby”, among other sexist remarks. This led to further allegations of bullying and derogatory language made by other riders against the team’s senior coach, who resigned from his post in April 2016.
The independent review into the culture of British Cycling’s world-class performance programme has been led by British Rowing chair Annamarie Phelps.
In response to its findings, British Cycling said: “All stakeholders now accept that the world-class programme leadership focused on athlete performance and medal delivery without sufficient care and attention to the overall staff and athlete culture and environment.
“British Cycling leadership did not have adequate oversight and control of the world-class programme and consequently failed to adequately grasp and subsequently address the early warning signs.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here