Varnish tells tribunal British Cycling was ‘extremely controlling’
Jess Varnish, the former track sprinter, has told an employment tribunal in Manchester that she was placed under “extreme forms of control” during her time on British Cycling’s Olympic squad.
On a tense first day of crossexamination in what is scheduled to be a week-long preliminary hearing into Varnish’s case for wrongful dismissal, the barrister for cycling’s national governing body, Thomas Linden QC, accused the 28-year-old of misleading the tribunal.
Varnish is attempting to prove that she was effectively “employed” by British Cycling, rather than merely being a funded athlete, before her dismissal in 2016.
If she succeeds, she will be clear to sue British Cycling and UK Sport for unfair dismissal, sex discrimination, victimisation and detriment suffered for being a whistleblower.
Varnish claims she was dropped from the Olympic programme as retaliation for criticising her coaches after she failed to qualify for the Rio Games. She has also accused coaches of bullying athletes and claimed that Shane Sutton, British Cycling’s technical director at the time, told her “to go and have a baby”.
An internal investigation found Sutton, who had already quit his post, guilty of using discriminatory language but not of bullying, only for an independent investigation to accuse Sutton and others of creating a “culture of fear” at the National Cycling Centre.
In her witness statement, Varnish listed numerous examples of “the control” British Cycling had over the riders on the programme, from what they wore, to where they lived, and even what they posted on social media.
Linden repeatedly challenged Varnish’s statements, saying her annual funding agreements did not change between 2005 and 2016, and adding that it would have been “more fair and truthful” to reveal that she had her own company to reduce the taxes she must pay on her sponsorship earnings.