|
It said the sport's drive for medals meant behavioral issues
were not addressed.
"The panel found that there were failings in British Cycling's
governance and leadership, monitoring and supervision of the WCP
(World Class Program), training and development, and management
and communications with staff and athletes," it said.
The panel recommended a root and branch review of governance,
calling for leadership to change, staff to be better trained in
equality and discrimination and that future funding should be
conditional on implementation of its recommendations.
The review was jointly commissioned by British Cycling and UK
Sport last April after Jess Varnish made allegations of bullying
and sexism against coach Shane Sutton after she was dropped.
Other riders also made allegations against Sutton, which he
denied. The Australian was suspended, but immediately quit. An
internal inquiry by the British Cycling Board upheld an
allegation that Sutton referred to female riders in insulting
terms.
British Cycling's chairman, Jonathan Browning, said he accepted
the report's findings.
"We accept, in full, the recommendations in the CIR (Cycling
Independent Review) and apologize for where we have failed or
fallen short of the standards which we should have achieved," he
said.
"It is clear from the CIR that our structures and procedures,
especially at the leadership level within the World Class
Program were lacking.
"Since the findings were shared with us, we have rapidly made
major changes to the WCP and to our leadership, operations and
governance so that we can ensure that British Cycling learns
these lessons and becomes a world class governing body."
British Cycling is due to receive 43 million pounds ($55
million) from government funding bodies UK Sport and Sport
England.
($1 = 0.7855 pounds)
(Reporting by Neil Robinson; Editing by Alison Williams)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
