‘There’s almost a desire to hang people out to dry’
British Cycling’s new chief Stephen Park lets Tom Cary know that he is ready to defend its damaged reputation
S tephen Park thinks carefully about what he is about to say, and then goes for an answer that takes me a little by surprise. “Look, I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure whether that was the case or not for all the people. You can only take on board what they have said. But there’s almost a desire at the moment to sensationalise and hang people out to dry and I find some of that quite disappointing, actually.”
I have just asked British Cycling’s new performance director what he makes of the allegations swirling around the sport he is soon to be running. Wendy Houvenaghel, the Northern Irish rider dropped in the build-up to London 2012, was the latest to allege this week that she had been discriminated against by British Cycling former bosses Shane Sutton and Sir Dave Brailsford, accusing them of sexism and ageism.
Park, who was appointed in December to fill a position last held by Brailsford in 2014, has until now kept silent as the controversy has obstinately refused to go away. The Scot has been serving his notice period as the Royal Yachting Association’s Olympic manager, a post he has held since 2001.
Given the fact that he was not there at the time, I thought he might go for the safe option; to say something along the lines of: ‘I cannot possibly comment on things that did not happen on my watch and I would really rather look forward rather than backward anyway, if you don’t mind.’
Or, if not that, then perhaps go for the safer option of trotting out the party line as espoused by Jonathan Browning, British Cycling’s new chairman, and Liz Nicholl, UK Sport’s chief executive, a couple of weeks ago. Something along the lines of: ‘Clearly, mistakes were made by the previous leadership. We apologise. It was unacceptable. We will do better’.
Park, though – or Sparky, as he is universally known within sailing – declines to reach for the sackcloth. It appears he is up for defending British Cycling’s damaged reputation.
He admits the allegations were, and continue to be, a serious concern, to the extent that they made him think twice about accepting the position. But, ultimately, he says, from his own experiences of dealing with the programme (there is plenty of ‘crosspollination’ between UK Sport’s world-class performance programmes), from the conversations he has had with people directly involved, he feels the stories coming out are not representative of the wider picture across the programmes.
“Of course, the [independent review into the culture at British Cycling] was going on through the tail end of the interview process,” he says of the review which was launched following Sutton’s resignation amid allegations of bullying and sexism. “But they [the panel] hadn’t come to any conclusions prior to my appointment.
“So, was it on my mind? Of course. Yes, it was. And, yes, it is. But I suppose I see all that as being a great opportunity. A lot of the things being raised in the various reviews and reports, there is already a lot of work being done to address a lot of the concerns; to improve the governance and organisational structure. That journey has already begun. So, I wasn’t so worried about that.
“Also, because I knew from the conversations I had had with riders I had met – at the Olympics or in previous visits, and from coaching staff and support staff – that some of the things that were coming out [the bullying allegations] were not representative of the whole programme.
“They may or may not have been representative of one or two people’s individual experiences within the programme – and of course that doesn’t make it all right – but they weren’t representative across the programmes.
“And now we are starting to see athletes coming out and saying, ‘Actually, do you know what? I didn’t get involved [when the controversy first erupted] because it didn’t feel it was relevant to me. But, actually, now I feel I need to speak up because this doesn’t represent the view that I have’. Dani King last week, for instance, who said something along the lines of: ‘Were they tough and were they harsh? Well, yes, they were. But no more harsh on me than on the men.’”
It is rather refreshing to hear someone standing up for British Cycling. For all that Park says there has been a hysterical reaction to all the allegations that have surfaced in the past 12 months, it has not been that easy to find people – riders or staff – prepared to speak for the defence. Park, though, appears up for the challenge of going in to bat for cycling.
A 49-year-old Glaswegian with a strong work ethic – he is just back from ski touring in the Alps where he and a few friends did the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt – “although in three days rather than the usual six” – Park progressed
‘There’s no way I would come in and say, yeah, I’m going to replace Shane Sutton on the coaching front’