Soccer line sport > Blog > Sport > British Cycling upholds Jess Varnish’s sexism complaint against former chief Shane Sutton – Daily Mail

British Cycling upholds Jess Varnish’s sexism complaint against former chief Shane Sutton – Daily Mail

Shane Sutton resigned from his role 100 days before the Rio Olympics
He was accused of using ‘inappropriate and discriminatory language’
Sutton quit after Jess Varnish launched a complaint against the Australian
British Cycling have upheld allegations and ‘regret’ the incident

Martha Kelner for the Daily Mail

and
Matt Lawton for the Daily Mail

Published:
11:32 EST, 28 October 2016

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Updated:
16:30 EST, 28 October 2016

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Shane Sutton’s hopes of being reinstated by British Cycling were ended on Friday when they ruled he did make inappropriate sexist comments to cyclist Jess Varnish.

It was alleged former performance director Sutton told Varnish her ‘bum was too big’ and to ‘get on with having a baby’.

Varnish revealed to Sportsmail in April he made the remarks after dropping her from the world-class performance programme months before Rio 2016.

Jess Varnish’s allegations have been upheld and British Cycling ‘regret’ the incident

Shane Sutton (right) quit his role ahead of the 2016 Olympics due to the allegations

Varnish suspects she was axed as a result of publicly criticising decisions made by British Cycling coaches.

But an internal investigation found she had told the truth and the British Cycling board apologised to her.

Sutton, who always denied any wrong-doing, resigned following Varnish’s claims and other allegations made to Sportsmail including that he referred to Paralympic cyclists as ‘f****** gimps’ and ‘wobblies’.

British Cycling condemned his use of ‘inappropriate and discriminatory language’ and added: ‘The board wishes to put on record its sincere regret that this happened.’

Sutton, who had support from some members of the 11-strong board, was on Friday night said to be ‘gutted’ at the decision.

Varnish (left) claims she was told to ‘go and have a baby’ after her contract was not renewed

BRITISH CYCLING TIMELINE

British Cycling on Friday announced that an internal investigation had upheld Jess Varnish’s complaint of ‘inappropriate and discriminatory language’ against former technical director Shane Sutton. Here Sportsmail outlines the timeline of events.

March 2 – Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant finish fifth in the two-woman, two-lap team sprint at the Track World Championships in London and fail to qualify for the Rio Olympics. Both riders blamed selection errors during the two-year qualification period. ‘I feel sick,’ said Varnish, who was disqualified at the London 2012 Olympics when competing with Victoria Pendleton.

‘This is through absolutely no fault of our own. We’re fifth in the world, we’ve beaten so many of the teams, this is the best we’ve ever competed and we’re not going to the Olympics.’ Sutton said: ‘We need to put to bed any crisis between the coaches and the riders. There’s no repercussions for anybody.’

April 20 – Sutton reveals in the Daily Telegraph that Varnish has been dropped from British Cycling’s elite squad. He denied it had anything to do with her outspoken comments in London and pointed to performances. He said: ‘Since her gold medal at the London World Cup in (February) 2012, Jess had not made the necessary gains in performance compared to the rest of the world. The decision was based on a projection of medal competitiveness at Olympic Games level.’

April 22 – Varnish responds in an interview with the Daily Mail. The 25-year-old alleged Sutton told her to ‘just move on and go and have a baby’. Varnish, whose boyfriend Liam Phillips is Britain’s leading BMX rider, added: ‘After 2012 I was told that, ‘with an ass like mine I couldn’t change position within the team sprint’. It basically implies the stronger woman has to go in ‘man one’ position because I’m quite glute dominant, shall we say.’ Sutton denied making the comments.

April 24 – Funding body UK Sport calls for Varnish’s allegations to be investigated.

April 26 – Olympic champions Pendleton and Nicole Cooke publicly back Varnish over her comments. Multiple world champion Wendy Houvenaghel also supports the claims. Varnish issues a statement on her website outlining, from her perspective, how the events unfolded and why she spoke out. British Cycling announces an independent review, in conjunction with UK Sport, into the claims.

April 27 – Sutton is suspended following further allegations, this time that he called para-cyclists ‘gimps’ and ‘wobblies’. He denies the allegations, which were made in the Daily Mail. In an interview with The Times, published on the same day, Sutton said he would welcome the opportunity to address the sexism claims and denied telling Varnish to ‘go and have a baby’.

British Cycling announces Sutton’s suspension in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Later that day he resigns as technical director. In a statement, he said: ‘I reject the specific claims that have been made against me in recent days, and I look forward to taking a full part in the review process so I can respond to the allegations in detail.’

April 29 – British Cycling chief executive Ian Drake insists he was not aware of the allegations of discrimination towards para-cyclists which were followed by Sutton’s suspension and then resignation.

Drake said: ‘I have never been made aware, formally or informally, of any allegation that Shane Sutton had used the offensive term ‘gimps’ in reference to Paralympic athletes prior to the media reports of the past few days. The suggestion that I would have not acted on such an allegation is wholly wrong.’

British Cycling and UK Sport announce in a joint statement that the review into allegations of bullying and discrimination will conclude after the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games and be led by Annamarie Phelps, the chair of British Rowing.

October 28 – British Cycling uphold Varnish’s complaint following an internal investigation and the national governing body’s board apologise to her. The internal report was passed on to the independent review, which is ongoing.