Former Great Britain cycling team technical director Shane Sutton accepts that it will be impossible for him to return to a role with British Cycling after the governing body found he had been guilty of discrimination against track sprinter Jess Varnish – allegations the 59-year-old Australian continues to strongly deny.
> British Cycling upholds Jessica Varnish’s allegation of discrimination against Shane Sutton
Speaking to Telegraph Sport, Sutton said he was likely to carry out more work in his consultancy role with Team Sky, and may also coach individual Great Britain riders on a one-to-one basis. But he also said that he had attracted interest from other countries eager to replicate the nation’s success.
“I’m adamant that I am innocent,” Sutton insisted. “I have definitely never overstepped the mark with Jess Varnish or any other athlete.”
The internal inquiry is separate to a review of the culture at British Cycling ordered by UK Sport after Sutton’s resignation in April, which followed claims of discrimination made not only by Varnish, but also by para-cyclist Darren Kenny.
> Jess Varnish reacts after British Cycling upholds her Shane Sutton complaint
“I’m massively disappointed,” Sutton said. “I put my trust in [the investigation]. I have gone back to them now and asked for the supporting evidence to try to understand how they have arrived at this conclusion.”
Referring to Varnish’s allegations that Sutton told her to go and have a baby and made disparaging comments about her physique, Sutton said: “I’m totally adamant that no conversations took place of that nature and that’s why I’ve asked for the supporting evidence.
“As far as I’m concerned there were two people in this conversation. So where is the evidence that this conversation, these comments took place? There is no proof.”
Saying that he would take time to reflect on the decision and whether he should appeal against it or even take legal action, he went on: “One party in all of this has been proved to have told untruths and that party wasn’t me.”
Sutton, who took over the helm of the national team after Sir Dave Brailsford’s departure in early 2014, confirmed that he had received overtures from other countries.
He said: “It’s possibly time now to have a look at a few of them. I am actually in discussions with some people right now, which has happened virtually overnight. That’s about all I can say at the moment.”
He added: “It’s just a shame it has ended like this but it has been a fantastic journey, there have been fantastic people who I have worked with, some incredible athletes. All of them. The Hoys, the Wiggins, the Cavendishes, the Pendletons, the Cookes. Absolutely fantastic to have been part of.
“You don’t spend the amount of time we did together, and go on the journey which we have been on, without having great memories.”
The two female world and Olympic champions that Sutton cites do not have such fond memories of working alongside him – in the wake of his resignation in April, both Nicole Cooke and Victoria Sutton said they backed Varnish, and had themselves suffered from similar discrimination.
One country looking to shake up its backroom line-up following a disappointing Rio Olympics is Sutton’s native Australia, where is brother Gary is coach to the women’s track endurance squad.
There is currently a vacancy for performance director with the Australian national team following Kevin Tabotta’s departure in the wake of Rio, where the team won one silver and one bronze medal.
10 thoughts on “Shane Sutton remains “adamant” of his innocence after British Cycling verdict”
No proof readers at work
No proof readers at work today?
atlaz wrote:
Nice one Atlaz 😉
Her and several others (one
Her and several others (one even mentioned in the article if you’d bothered reading it ).
We’ll never know enough about whether he was a fall guy or part of the problem but it’s pretty clear that even those defending him will talk about his ‘no nonsense attitude’ and ‘robust’ sense of humour just as it’s very clear that there has been something odd going on at BC.
The potential good from this is that it might trigger an overdue change in attitudes that improves things long term. Let’s hope so.
British Swimming had this 10
British Swimming had this 10 years ago. Bill Sweetenham dragged the national setup into the current century (key difference was Sweetenham had already done it in his native Oz) and, job done, stepped down amid similar complaints of being a bit of a caveman.
The set of skills required to drag an organisation to ‘where it needs to be’ is very different from that required to maintain the status quo or look for marginal gains. Companies regularly struggle with this.
Sutton will have appeared more anachronistic since British Cycling became the world leader; his job was done a long time ago and the production line needs to be kept ticking over now. There’s no place for his methods anymore at BC. Ideal next stop: a cycling sleeping giant that still shows Benny Hill at prime time.
as you might imagine i had a
as you might imagine i had a thought on this .http://bit.ly/2f7YkAt
the_broken_cyclist wrote:
Well said. The fans boys and abuse apologists probably won’t even read this however.
Al__S wrote:
+1
Well said.
it’s very clear that there
it’s very clear that there has been something odd going on at BC.
It’s very clear there has been three olympic cycles of unparalleled success. Just as I respect the opinions of Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish you have to respect the opinions of the other competitors male and female (multi gold medal winners among them) who have expressed their wish to see him reinstated.
This arose at the time JVs contract was not renewed. This wasn’t the act of someone anti-woman. The replacement as GBs no 2 sprinter was another woman who went on to win a bronze medal. It might have been more loyal to have kept JV but in the light of the results it looks as if it might have been a vey good decision.
There might be parallels in swimming and there, team GB has gone on to better things but sport is littered with teams that want to “move to the next level” sack their succesful coach/manager and then go dramatically backwards.
I’m sure that we can find someone more politically correct, kinder, diplomatic but we certainly won’t find someone more sucessful. Olympic reliant sports like track cycling depend on funding. Getting a great team with everyone feeling secure and the best of freinds with the management might seem a worthy goal but if the funding is cut due to lack of medal success it won’t help in the slightest.
Some have said that to get a more respectful environment will only help in improving the results. How exactly? In two olympic cycles everyone who has competed for GB has won a medal most gold. All except JV that is (not that it was her fault in any way).
ooldbaker wrote:
No, it didn’t. It’s been going on for years. However, the media only saw fit to pay attention to it at that time, which triggered the investigation.
Some coaches have their
Some coaches have their favourites. If you are one of the favourites, the experience you have of that coach is very different to those who don’t fall into that category.