The athlete welfare crisis in Olympic sport continues to grow with the revelation that a bobsleigh coach was accused of racism amid an alleged “culture of fear” pervading the high-performance programme.
News of yet another governing body accused of duty of care failings follows the Guardian’s revelation on Monday that a police investigation has been launched into allegations a suspended senior canoeing coach groomed teenage girls for sex.
The BBC reported that a group of athletes wrote anonymously to the chief executive of the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (BBSA), the sport’s governing body, this year to “share concerns over the behaviour of key performance and management staff”.
One alleged they had experienced “racism several times” from a senior coach and that the coach referred to black people as “lazy” and had “a blatant dislike towards people of colour”.
According to the BBC, several letters were sent by athletes and staff to Richard Parker. One claimed there was “a racial bias in favour of Caucasian males” on the performance programme and “a racial stigma against black drivers”.
Others remarked that “sexist comments are regular, there have been claims of racist remarks which all get ignored,” and that “the culture is one of fear … athletes are literally terrified of putting a foot wrong,” and there was “dictatorship within the management”.
Parker met with a group of athletes in April and an internal review to investigate the allegations was set up, led by three members of the BBSA board. But last month he told his athletes: “No formal complaints were made against individual staff members and therefore no disciplinary action will take place.”
The BBSA said it “condemns racism, sexism and any other form of discrimination in the strongest possible sense. Such attitudes have no place in our sport.”
In a statement, it added: “Having received a set of anonymous athlete comments regarding the performance environment following the conclusion of the 2016-17 sliding season, the BBSA immediately instigated an internal review.
“Athletes were asked to formalise any complaints as part of the process to start an official investigation and allow any persons involved a right to respond but no such complaints were made. The BBSA acted swiftly to address the situation and steps have been taken to ensure all athletes and staff are clear on the process in which to address any concerns. We are proud of the diversity in our team and the success it brings.”
It comes on the eve of the release of a report into claims of discrimination and bullying at British Cycling. That inquiry followed allegations, originally made by Jess Varnish and disabled cyclists, accusing former technical director Shane Sutton of discrimination, claims he wholly denies.
But the independent investigation, headed by the British Rowing chairman Annamarie Phelps, was widened to look at the culture of British Cycling in its entirety. The process of interviewing respondents to the inquiry began 14 months ago but its publication has been delayed several times with some claiming a draft version of the report was unrepresentative of the real situation.
Nevertheless, the Guardian understands it will make miserable reading for both the governing body and the funding agency UK Sport, which allocates lottery and exchequer money to Olympic sports.
The pressure on UK Sport to develop a coherent plan to combat duty of care failings will only increase with recent developments in British Canoeing and British Bobsleigh.
