Since taking over from Sir Dave Brailsford in April 2014, the mantra of Shane Sutton, British Cycling’s technical director, has been for his riders and staff to be ready for Rio. As 100 days to the Games looms, however, the Australian has other matters to worry him, with the alleged sexism raised by the sprinter Jess Varnish at the top of his agenda. Coming as it does on top of a simmering selection issue in BMX over the UK national champion, Tre Whyte, it underlines that the road to the Games is not proving smooth.
The charges are potentially devastating. Sutton allegedly told Varnish to “go away and have a baby”, while the sprinter added that she was told: “With an ass like mine I couldn’t change position within the team sprint.”
Sutton strongly denies her claims and the team were adamant that the allegations had not been not raised during a lengthy dismissal procedure. The deadline for Varnish’s appeal was extended several times to enable her to prepare her case against the performance issues that were cited as the reason for her contract not being renewed.
The bigger question that needs to be asked is whether British Cycling has a specific problem with women. That might seem a strange one for a programme that has consistently produced women’s world and Olympic medals since 2005, with Nicole Cooke, Victoria Pendleton, Laura Trott and Lizzie Armitstead at the forefront.
There are few female staff members, although the women’s track squad has increased in size since full parity in terms of Olympic medals came in 2012. Asked if the team had had formal complaints in recent years similar to those raised by Varnish, British Cycling said that was categorically not the case.
Not everyone has made complaints similar to Varnish’s. David James has three daughters on different British Cycling programmes: Becky is a former team-mate of Varnish on the sprint squad, the eldest sister, Rachel, is on the Paralympic programme and the younger sibling, Ffion, is on the mountain bike squad.
“That certainly doesn’t reflect the picture we’ve seen,” he told the Observer. “Becky went on her own to Australia with Shane and all the sprint boys in December 2012 and absolutely loved it. We had no qualms about her going.
“Before that, Shane had told Becky that she was not going to the London Olympics. There were tears over that but if they aren’t good enough they have to accept it. I’ve always found Shane to be very honest. If they haven’t performed, they have been told.
“The programme has been supportive of Becky during her recent injury and when Ffion was offered a university place which meant more school work they gave her a study break.”
Whatever the position on the track – where Varnish has not complained of lack of resources, merely of mismanagement by her coaching team – Cooke has described what amounted to institutional sexism in her contacts with British Cycling, where she said women road racers consistently came well down the priority list compared to their male counterparts. That is backed up by fellow racers, usually speaking off the record, and more recently has been reflected by the governing body’s inability to build a team around Armitstead since her silver medal at London 2012.
The resources offered to the world champion, as to Cooke in the past, have been in stark contrast to some other nations and to the attention lavished on Mark Cavendish in the run-in to his world title in 2011.
Ironically, in view of Varnish’s comments, it is Sutton who has pushed for the reformation of the women’s under-23 road academy, which was discontinued under Brailsford, and brought in a new women’s road coach in Brian Stephens.
On the back of success in major Games, women’s cycle racing on these shores is witnessing a dramatic expansion in rider numbers, team numbers and prize purses and British Cycling is making conscious efforts to push participation levels up with a target of getting a million more women cycling in the next four years. The governing body has, it says, contacted Varnish and invited her to discuss what was allegedly said. If it is truly pushing for equality, it has no option but to be seen to be tackling her claims.
