A track cyclist who represented Ireland at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships is to receive £55,000 in damages for injuries suffered in a collision with a driver back in 2019.
However, a High Court judge ruled Marc Potts, who finished fourth in the scratch race at the 2017 European Track Championships, did not miss out on being selected to represent his country at the Tokyo Olympics because of the collision.
The Irish News was at the High Court to hear how Mr Potts, from Co. Tyrone, was hit by a driver on the outskirts of Omagh in April 2019, the year after he had represented Ireland at the World Track Championships and Commonwealth Games.
The international track rider suffered injuries including a broken shoulder blade, cuts and lacerations, as well as aggravation to a previous wrist injury, something Mr Potts said continued to hold him back in training and competition. Prior to the collision, he reported being “100%” certain he would be going to the 2020 Olympics. The Tokyo Games were, of course, rescheduled to 2021 due to the Covid pandemic and Mr Potts ultimately retired that year in the belief he had never been able to regain his previous level due to the crash.
The court heard he wanted to compete in the Madison and Omnium but was “a shadow of his former self at a camp held in Mallorca” in 2019. His lawyers suggested he had suffered financially from not making the Olympic squad, because Mr Potts’ coaching would be worth more as an Olympian. The track cyclist also believed he would have competed at subsequent Commonwealth Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics, something the judge called “wishful thinking”.
“He never became an Olympian. Initially, he was heartbroken, then bitter and now nurses a residual annoyance at such a missed opportunity,” Justice Simpson told the High Court. “The plaintiff has failed to persuade me, on the balance of probabilities, that he would have been selected for the Tokyo Olympics.
“All the contemporaneous, objective evidence suggests that, irrespective of the plaintiff’s accident, the Irish selectors had concluded that Downey and English would go as competitors. I consider his evidence that he would have competed at two Commonwealth Games events and the Paris Olympics to be no more than wishful thinking, at best.
“I consider, on the balance of probabilities, that the plaintiff would have retired from cycling around the time he did even if the accident had not happened.”
The judge also ruled that, on the balance of evidence, Mr Potts’ wrist deterioration was due to a fracture sustained in 2017, rather than when he was hit by a driver in 2019. A Sport Ireland grading system was raised in court, the governing body’s assessment from the time showing that Mr Potts was in its ‘international’ category, but two other riders picked for the Tokyo Olympics, Mark Downey and Felix English, were ‘world class’.
The judge concluded Mr Potts should receive £50,000 in damages for his injuries suffered in the collision, as well as any psychiatric consequences. A sum of £5,000 for interruption to his cycling career was also ordered, but the High Court judge did not accept it ended his Olympic aspirations.
A further £12,500 compensation was ordered for damage to his bike, belongings, and the cost of travelling to medical appointments.
In July, we reported a former professional cyclist (James McLaughlin, who represented Guernsey at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and 2018) is suing a driver for £1m after a dooring incident on a bike lane left him with a “brain injury” that, he says, led to the “loss of his cycling career”.
He is supported by an emotional assistance dog and is seeking more than £1 million from the insurers of both the driver and the passenger. While liability for the dooring has already been admitted, the case now centres on whether McLaughlin suffered a “mild traumatic brain injury” in the crash and the scale of compensation he is entitled to.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
11 thoughts on “Judge rejects claim Irish track cyclist missed Olympics because of collision with driver, but rider to receive £55,000 damages for injuries”
Judging by the stories on here Irish judges do the almost impossible of making British judges seem quite reasonable towards cyclists. How can the judge possibly say that Potts, who had already been selected by Ireland for world-level championships, would not have improved sufficiently over the two years between the incident and the Olympics to be selected again? Additionally, Potts was 28 at the time of the incident so would only have been 33 at the time of the Tokyo Olympics; Chris Hoy took gold in London aged 36. Potts should surely have been compensated on the basis that he was deprived of the chance to fight for selection, rather than refused higher compensation on the basis that the judge (who presumably has no knowledge or expertise related to track cycling) has decided that he wouldn’t have been selected.
That’s a rather rose tinted view. The judges view based on evidence you’ve not seen is that he was only ever 3rd best and his chances of an Olympic visit unlikely.
Well, there are two alternatives, the judge had secret evidence that he didn’t reveal or the press couldn’t be bothered to report or he’s made very large suppositions based on little evidence. Potts was good enough for selection for the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games the year before and had a year (or as it turned out two years) to move from third to second in the reckoning. The judge’s comments seem to me based on extreme guesswork that I suspect are rooted in anticyclist bias; how on earth can he say he knows that Potts would have retired the year of the crash when he was 28 and clearly trying his hardest to get into the Olympic squad?
The crash and the judgement happened in Northern Ireland, so an Irish judge geographically but a British judge in the sense all of this happened in the UK and in the UK legal system (NI being a distinct legal jurisdiction from England & Wales or Scotland, but still part of the UK.)
Cycling like most sport is organised on an all-island basis and athletes in Northern Ireland can compete for either Team Ireland or Team GB; the vast majority compete for Ireland. But the legal system involved here was a British one.
The northern Irish legal system historically descends from the (all-Ireland) Irish legal system (as it was at the time of partition) AIUI. And the Irish legal system course is based on English common law.
Seems a bit suspicious that he was reporting it prior to the collision even happening – is this one of those crash for cash schemes? Or did you perhaps mean to write something else here?
It was considered that Potts and Downey would be the team, Felix English was only taken back into the picture after Marc got injured, having already said he was retiring, from what I am led to believe.
This seems unlikely. If what you believe is true it would have been stated as evidence in the trial.
What’s that got to do with what I wrote, though?
I assume road.cc is only paraphrasing what is presented in the Irish News article, which is a bit ambiguous.
It is presumably fairly clear that Potts has claimed, as part of the current proceedings, that prior to the crash he was 100% certain he would be going to the Tokyo Olympics.
It is less clear if this is an accurate statement regarding Potts’ beliefs prior to the crash. There may be avenues to ascertain that – presumably Potts worked with a coach, and discussions of his goals and ambitions would presumably have factored in to that. It is unclear to what extent it was evidenced or agreed that, prior to the crash, Potts really did believe he was 100% certain he would be going to the Olympics.
I would suggest it is somewhat moot – given the judge’s conclusion (whether or not you agree with it), it doesn’t really matter whether or not Potts believed it at the time or is only claiming it now.
All very interesting, but not really relevant to my point about road.cc’s poor writing.