Cycling chief resigns
Cycling New Zealand chief executive Jacques Landry has resigned after three years in the job.
His resignation comes amid an inquiry into the sport and three months after the suspected suicide of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore, who posted on social media about the pressures of high performance sport before her death.
Cycling NZ board chair Phil Holden said Landry had made a ‘‘major contribution’’ to cycling.
Landry first arrived at the organisation in 2019, after 10 years as the high performance director at Cycling Canada. He will leave for his native Canada at the end of the year.
His arrival followed the 2018 Heron review that found a ‘‘lack of accountability and sub-optimal leadership’’, ‘‘instances of bullying’’ and a ‘‘dysfunctional’’ culture in cycling. Within the 83-page 2018 review, Mike
Heron made 11 recommendations, including several pertaining to athlete welfare.
Landry was brought in to implement its recommendations and to oversee the establishment of the athletes’ voice committee and a new code of conduct. The implementation of the Heron review is the basis of the independent inquiry currently being undertaken by a panel appointed by Cycling New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand.
The inquiry is set to miss its first major deadline, with panellists unable to meet athletes face-to-face because of Covid restrictions in Waikato, where the NZ Cycling centralised programme is based. A draft of the findings from the inquiry is now due in February 2022.
Following the death of Podmore in August, Landry said Cycling NZ ‘‘would be questioning this for a long time’’.
‘‘There will be a time for us to review and look at it and where we had missteps, or if we did not act properly,’’ he said.
Landry also facilitated the Cycling NZ athlete voice committee, which includes past and present riders. In a meeting in August, before the death of Podmore, concerns were raised about a lack of transparent communication around selection criteria and the wording of athlete agreements.
Landry would continue to make himself available to the inquiry panel after his departure from the organisation, Holden said.