Stuff Digital Edition

The unseen cost of Cycling NZ’s breach

Dana Johannsen and Zoe¨ George

Cycling New Zealand is facing further questions over its ethics after its high performance boss was forced to step down in the wake of revelations of an ‘‘integrity breach’’ at the Tokyo Olympics.

Cycling NZ yesterday announced the departure of high performance director Martin Barras following an investigation into a rules breach at the Tokyo Games.

The extraordinary development comes as a separate independent inquiry continues into the sport following the suspected suicide of elite cyclist Olivia Podmore in August.

The investigation into the team’s conduct in Tokyo was sparked in September after Cycling NZ chief executive Jacques Landry was alerted to a possible integrity breach at the Games. Landry referred the information to the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC), which commissioned high profile barrister Don Mackinnon to investigate.

Mackinnon found the process to replace an athlete during a cycling event at Tokyo had not been conducted according to International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) rules.

This put the individuals responsible both in breach of Cycling NZ’s code of conduct, but also their participation agreements with the NZOC and IOC.

Teams were able to take reserve riders to the Olympic Games, but once start lists are submitted changes can only be made in case of injury or illness. It is understood Cycling NZ misled Tokyo officials on the reasons for substituting a rider for an event.

Cycling NZ said it would not be providing further details of the incident.

But multiple sources have confirmed to Stuff that the rule breach related to the replacement of Sam Dakin in the men’s team sprint event.

Dakin was replaced by Callum Saunders in the final round of the team sprint – a pre-meditated move engineered to ensure Saunders was able to also race in the Keirin event.

In a statement, Landry said while Barras ‘‘was not directly involved in the incident, as director he was ultimately responsible for the conduct of the team at the Olympic Games’’.

Stuff understands sprint coach Rene Wolff has also resigned.

Stuff has also learned Barras was fined and censured on day one of the Tokyo Games for ‘‘disobeying the course commissaires’’. He was one of just three team managers sanctioned during the event.

‘‘Cycling New Zealand was extremely disappointed to learn of this incident. The Code of Conduct has been made patently clear to everyone, especially since it was strengthened after 2018,’’ Landry said.

The events in Tokyo have provided the independent panel investigating Cycling NZ with another real-time evaluation of the national body’s systems and processes around athlete welfare. In a statement released yesterday, Cycling NZ said its focus was on supporting the athletes who may have been harmed or disadvantaged by the rule breach.

While substituting one rider for another and fudging the paperwork may appear to be at the less serious end of integrity breaches, there is an unseen cost on the other side of these decisions: an athlete who has trained for years to be given the opportunity to compete at an Olympic Games, only to have the opportunity taken away under dubious circumstances.

The incident further points to a culture within Cycling NZ of a lack of respect for athletes in its care – a common thread that has emerged from the testimony of current and former cyclists in the high performance programme, who have spoken out following Podmore’s death.

The NZOC acknowledged that some athletes had been ‘‘unfairly impacted by the breach’’.

The resignations of Barras and Wolff follow that of chief executive Landry on Monday.

Sport

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2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

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