Just days after five national cycling team athletes launched an appeal against Cycling Canada to be reinstated for competition, two board members have now resigned from the national sport organization in response to the decision.
Both resignations are effective immediately. Becka Borody is one of the board members who stepped down.
“This was not a decision I made because of one situation. Ultimately, I believe athletes deserve better: greater transparency, better communication, and to feel heard and respected within the system that exists to support them,” Borody wrote in a statement to CBC Sports.
“My focus moving forward will be on supporting athletes and the broader cycling community outside of Cycling Canada.
CBC Sports has also learned that Cycling Canada Athletes’ Council members, consisting of twelve athletes, have written a letter to the national sport organization with a number of calls to action.
The letter’s main aim is to ask Cycling Canada for reform in the structure, strategy and framework of what the national sport organization calls “high performance,” because the athletes feel it is historically and currently ineffective and directionless.
Call for reinstatement of women’s pursuit team
The athletes are also calling for the reinstatement of the women’s pursuit team in the letter.
This all comes in the wake of Cycling Canada’s decision not to send a women’s pursuit team to this year’s world championships, effectively ending their bid to qualify for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The men’s pursuit team is unaffected and is on track to compete.
“These athletes are not forlorn. Instead, filing the appeal, they are being even more motivated to train now. With this pressure, the support that they’ve garnered from the country, from people internationally, that were so aghast that a women’s team was cancelled,” Alison Jackson said in a phone interview from Scotland.
“I think that’s such a red flag in our sports culture right now, to see a women’s, only the women’s program be cancelled.”
Jackson is a Team Canada road cyclist and is the national team athlete representative on the Cycling Canada board. She learned of the two board resignations yesterday and has been doing her level best to support the women directly impacted by this decision.
Earlier this week, Skyler Goudswaard, Fiona Majendie, Jenna Nestman, Lily Plante and Justine Thomas filed an appeal with the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada challenging Cycling Canada’s decision.
‘It’s not the athletes’ fault’
Jackson says this entire situation has been handled poorly and lacks accountability from the Cycling Canada leadership.
“We need Cycling Canada to own the lack of current and historical framework to develop and build medal-winning performances and acknowledge that it’s not the athletes’ fault that the program has fallen behind,” she said.
“If we start talking about the team not having enough strength or not reaching power markers, that’s really unfair because the athletes were never given markers that they needed to reach. The lack of structure and a poor culture has set them up for failure.”
The lawyers representing the five athletes have serious concerns about this decision made by Cycling Canada.
“The decision raises serious questions about fairness, consistency, and whether female athletes are being afforded the same opportunity to compete and progress as the men’s program,” said Amanda Fowler and Emir Crowne in a joint statement.
At time of publication, Cycling Canada had not answered CBC Sports request for comment specifically relating to the resignation of board members.
CEO says decision based on competitiveness
However, earlier this week Cycling Canada CEO Mathieu Boucher said the decision to cut the women’s team pursuit program was based on a level of competitiveness.
“This was not a decision made based on funding. This was a decision made based on the performance and competitiveness of the team, and the need for us to re-shift our focus where we can really have an impact and rebuild that team,” Boucher said.
Jackson says the team was never aware and it was never communicated what performance standards needed to be achieved — and that had the athletes known, it might have been an entirely different outcome.
“There’s just a lot of missing pieces and what the problem is, athletes already really struggle with distrust of the organization,” Jackson said.
“If we already struggle with distrust and we think that the organization isn’t being transparent and isn’t communicating well, when something that comes out like this that is very vague, we will have a lot of questions or concerns and we’re not buying it.”
Jackson has been in contact with the impacted women and says they remain hopeful.
“They’ve invested so much time, energy, hopes and dreams, but also finances into something that they also didn’t know was going to be a dead end for them.”
“The thing about athletes is they’re so resilient. What happens in sport? You get knocked down. What do you do? Let’s think creatively, let’s work harder, because we can still achieve our dreams,” Jackson said.
There is a level of optimism the women’s team pursuit program will be reinstated, however, Jackson does worry about the mental and emotional toll this is taking on the athletes.
“If they win the appeal and they get to go to the world championships, how much energy has it taken away from training and whatever that mental stress is to be able to perform or really achieve,” she said.
“I just hope that if the decision goes in the athletes’ favour, that Cycling Canada will be quick to make a strategy to fully get on board and actually get behind the women and help them have a good performance.”
