Shane Sutton resigns from British Cycling

I am sure this will come as no surprise to Nicole Cooke and others. If you look back, the warning signs will be there. Clearly promoted in 2014 way out of his depth to take the GB team to the Olympics.

Wow, i love these stories as it shows where you,as an indivudal sits within the general spectrum of society.

I am clearly a lot more sexist and tolerant of generally unaccepted behaviour than I thought.

In this instance(s), my old line of - banter, is banter, all the way up to the point where situations change, and suddenly its indefendable comments that lead to your sacking, seems very apt.

On one level, its a sad world where everything you say in private can be used against you in a public environment... on the other, its  sad world where people are still holding on to such out dated prejudices. 

Anyway, what I meant to say is that the BC performance team environment, is not necessarily a nice one... infact its horrible to all but the tiny minority that thrive in that environment. 

My personal feeling is that the women and paraolympic athletes that feel the most burnt by this environment, fee this way, not because the system was necessarily  overly discriminatory to them, but because they stayed in a system that was not compatible for them, where if they had a larger talent pool (women, paraolympians) they would have been spat out at an earlier stage. 

What I mean by this, is that the whole system is toxic and needs reviewing... this is so much more than just a few naughty statements from one man. 

Nothing wrong with tough motivational messages including bad language and raised voices. What is wrong is justifying an action based on something a person can't change about themselves (being a woman, being disabled, having a fat arse, whatever).

Even the riders who've come out in support of Sutton have said he's unlikeable and to a certain extent the firebrand terrifying coach has their place. What they have to do is separate the performance from the individual: "that shift was fucking useless, get out there and do it again" vs "you're fucking rubbish, you never put a shift in"

Coach/Athlete is usually a Parent/Child relationship - and those work best when they're supportive within clear boundaries and expectations. At the start of all this he said Jess was cut because her times weren't good enough - fair enough, as long as she's been given a fair go (i.e. not injured) and told she was at risk. That doesn't seem to have happened and is actually irrelevant now as the sexist comments have ended up being the catalyst for the other revelations. Its the comments about paralympians that have got him sacked because they're indefensible. Unless pressure was brought to bear on BC by sponsors his comments about Jess would have resulted in a reprimand and a statement about how BC is inclusive and celebrates all its winning athletes and he would have still been in charge for Rio

The alarm bells should have been ringing back at the Worlds when Varnish & Marchant made that public statement about coaching - they're all media trained these days and that sort of thing just doesn't happen unless something is completely rotten in an organisation. You wouldn't hear Froome or Sagan slagging off their coaches in public or bemoaning team selection decisions.

I think British cycling/UK sport probably have a proper bullying/harassment policy and a whole team of HR people to oversee it and protect whistle blowers. I think that is probably the proper way to report these issues, rather than waiting till you're out the door and running to the bastion of impartial journalism that is the daily mail.

The conduct alleged is completely improper and unprofessional and has no place in todays society, but the way it has been brought to light will be severely damaging to all of the British cycling in the lead up to the olympics.

I would also assume that sponsorship of British Cycling could take a hit because of this, and that won't be helpful for the women or mens teams.

So rather than athletes raising concerns about improper comments from senior coaching staff to be dealt with internally we now have a damaging witch hunt led by an already anti cycling british press.

Great!

Men, Women or Paralympians, these are all highly dedicated and motivated individuals who wouldn't have gained a training place within BC without an enormous amount of effort and perseverence in addition to basic talent.

There is certainly a place for a tough training regime, expectation of high standards and motivational techniques supported by modern sports psychology. I also believe that banter which to an outsider might appear to be outrageously inappropriate can be very healthy in a tight knit team of people who work closely with each other. This is absolutely not the same as or compatible with fostering a culture of discrimination based on sex, race, religion or disability, or where the 'victim' of the banter is no position to make it stop when it crosses the line. If this is not blindingly apparent to anyone in a position of management over other people then they have no place in a position of such responsibility.

Although I have little doubt that he is not the most well-like member of BC, what would be the point of someone who wasn't passionate about extracting every ounce of performance from individuals under their direction. We wouldn't be where we are in world cycling if it wasn't for driven people like Shane Sutton.

It doesn't however excuse the use of derogatory language towards any person whether they be able-bodied, para, black, white, gay or straight and for that (providing that it can be proven) he must be investigated and sanctioned accordingly. Sadly, that probably won't happen now he has resigned, which also seems to speak volumes as to the validity of the comments made by Jess Varnish et al.

How about we see if the accusations are true before you all condem the highly successful cycling coach. Again the rather strange new British behaviour of guilty by say so & media. I will wait for evidence.

pathetic. 

Does this mean that Ms Varnish will be reinstated or that Tre White (current world BMX no3) and Quillan Isidore will be able to go to the BMX Worlds at their own expense and later in the year also compete in Brazil?

Persoanlly I think there's more wrong within BC than just one Australian.

2 ways to look at this: He did wrong and resigned, or He didn't do wrong has been pressured to resign.

Lets hope for the sake of "justice" it was the former, becaue if these allegations prove untrue it's a pretty shocking turn of events.

guyrwood wrote

"Good, now f**k off back to Australia."

Sorry, I may be being a bit presumptive here but he really does sound like an unpleasant piece of work. The kind of out-dated bellend who expects his wife to have his tea on the table when he gets in from work and calls gay people poofs when he thinks no one's listening.

I notice he says the specific claims against him. Ie he is sexist but he didn't tell Varnish to go have a baby!

i trust that the full report of the independent review will be made public within the next six months. No need to drag it out when all parties are here in Britain.

Also hope that any other aggrieved parties will come forward quickly rather than think his resignation is enough. Let's get everything out in the open now...

So who's in charge for the 99 days running up to the Olympics?  It seems a terrible time for all this to blow up...

Good, now f**k off back to Australia.

Is he throwing a wobblie?

Off to have a baby apparently...