The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
‘Culture of fear’ was created: Houvenaghel
Former world champion Wendy Houvenaghel has said the pursuit of “medals at any cost” was behind the creation of a “culture of fear” within British Cycling’s World Class programme.
Houvenaghel accused the organisation of ageism, adding that coaches had “zero regard” for her welfare and that she felt “oppressed” by former performance director Sir Dave Brailsford and former technical director Shane Sutton.
The Olympic silver medallist said she was “pleasantly surprised” that a leaked draft report into the culture and climate within British Cycling had vindicated the criticisms put forward by the likes of Jess Varnish, Nicole Cooke and Emma Pooley.
Asked if rider welfare was as important as the drive for medals, Houvenaghel told BBC Sport: “No, not from my own experience. It was medals at any cost, of course. That’s how it was whenever I was there, certainly in 2012.”
Such a criticism could lead to further questions for UK Sport, which has made Olympic medal success the sole criteria for distribution of funding to sports bodies.
However, Houvenaghel also said some riders within the programme received favourable treatment.
“Certain riders that were chosen and favoured will not have experienced that culture of fear in the same way so they don’t really understand,” she said.
Houvenaghel won Olympic silver in the individual pursuit in 2008, and gold in the team pursuit at the 2008, 2009 and 2011 track world championships, but was “frozen out” in the build-up to London 2012 – something she blamed on her age as she was 37 at the time of the Games.
“I felt it was more ageism,” she said. “I was a little bit older than my team-mates and it wasn’t something the staff necessarily wanted in 2012...
“After six years of constantly medaling at world cups, world championships, and national championships, both on the track and on the road, they discarded me in a very undignified way. I don’t think the fastest team on the day was permitted to race.”