Bobsled, skeleton athletes repeat calls to improve toxic culture

More than 90 current and retired Canadian bobsled and skeleton athletes are repeating calls to federal Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge to help clean up what they say is a toxic climate in their sport.

The BCS Athlete for Change group originally wrote a public letter in March calling for the resignations of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton president Sarah Storey and high performance director Chris Le Bihan.

The athletes say systemic issues have plagued BCS for since Storey was elected, and that they have gone unacknowledged by the organization.

They included a detailed 24-page collection of issues and lived or observed athlete experiences, which was presented to BCS’s board of directors.

The letter included detailed findings from a recent review and evaluation of BCS completed by external consultant Nick Bass, the high performance advisor for Own the Podium.

The athletes say the current participation at the national and grassroots level in both bobsled and skeleton is "concerningly low," and noted that in 2019 bobsled saw the departure of three-time Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries to the United States.

There’s an exodus of current athletes, they say, who are choosing to compete for other countries.

The letter comes amid what St-Onge has called a safe sport crisis in Canada.

Hockey Canada has been mired in sexual assault allegations that has seen numerous sponsors withdraw their support and St-Onge freeze their federal funding.

The bobsled and skeleton letter asks St-Onge to look beyond funding freezes to influence change, as that would only exacerbate the negative effects to athletes.