Pendleton: I could have gone to Rio
DOUBLE Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton has suggested she could have gone on to compete at the Rio Olympics this summer had British Cycling chief Shane Sutton quit sooner.
The technical director resigned last month after Sportsmail revealed allegations of sexism towards sprint cyclist Jess Varnish and that he allegedly referred to para- cyclists as ‘gimps’ and ‘wobblies’.
Pendleton retired after winning gold and silver at London 2012 and will go to Rio as a pundit for the BBC. However yesterday the 35-year-old said she would have done even better in London without Sutton, adding that the culture at British Cycling was a major factor in her decision to call time on her glittering career.
‘It played a part — a big part,’ said Pendleton, speaking at the BBC’s Rio 2016 launch. ‘I couldn’t stay working there.
‘If, four years ago, they had made the changes that they have made now I’d have been a lot happier and would have performed better. That’s what I would say, wholeheartedly.’ When asked if she feels a sense of what might have been now Sutton has quit, Pendleton said: ‘Of course. It was never going to happen at an earlier stage, unfortunately.
‘When you’re in the team you keep your head down and you do what you’re told because you want to be part of it. It was going to happen sometime and it would be naive to think that it wasn’t ever going to come out.’
Pendleton, who also won gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, revealed she has put her name forward for the independent review which will investigate the allegations and backed the addition of former England rugby union head coach Stuart Lancaster to the review panel.
Last month, Pendleton revealed she had similar experiences at British Cycling to Varnish, who claimed that Sutton told her to ‘move on and go and have a baby’ after ending her Olympic dream and that he said her ‘ass’ was ‘too big’ for certain roles.
Pendleton also dismissed claims by Sutton that he often ‘held her’ in his arms after she had ‘capitulated’ on the track.
British Cycling declined to comment yesterday.