Olivia Podmore died of a suspected suicide on August 9, 2021. Photo / Getty Images
A 10-point action plan in response to a damning report into the culture at Cycling NZ after the death of Olympian Olivia Podmore has been released today - stressing a need to give athletes a greater voice and further investment in women's health.
The response from High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) comes a few months after the highly critical 104-page independent report co-chaired by Mike Heron QC and Massey Professor Sarah Leberman was released on May 16.
That was nine months after 24-year-old Podmore died in a suspected suicide on August 9, 2021.
If the 2022 Heron/Leberman report could be distilled into one theme it would be that Cycling NZ's high-performance system "prioritises medals over wellbeing".
Outlining the 10-point action plan today, HPSNZ chief executive Raelene Castle said they had already taken many strides to improving athlete wellbeing since Podmore's death.
"There's no doubt it has been confronting for people," Castle said to the Herald of the process of drafting the action plan.
"I mean people who care deeply about athletes always find challenge and critique of how a system is performing difficult. That's why High Performance Sport NZ has spent so much time not only giving support to those people but also making sure we took the report and actually asked them to feed back on it so that we could understand where they think the biggest opportunities for impact in the system are.
"We have acknowledged publicly that more needs to be done to ensure that HPSNZ and NSOs are creating environments where wellbeing and success can co-exist without compromise."
Among the 10 initiatives were: implementing athlete voice mechanisms, ensuring athlete contracts clearly outline minimum standards, monitoring support to athletes at transitional periods such as selections, making sure athletes have transparent and regularly monitored Individual Performance Plans and a focus on developing leadership at all levels of coaches and the executive.
Point six on HPSNZ's action plan in particular identifies a need to prioritise and invest further in women's health and leadership initiatives.
This includes appointing a women's health lead to implement initiatives that continue to raise awareness of issues impacting the performance and wellbeing of female athletes.
Castle said HPSNZ would be searching our research internationally, or conducting it themselves, which provides insight into the health factors affecting females athlete performance, and the impacts of training post menstruation or post pregnancy.
While the Heron/Leberman report was focused on Cycling NZ, HPSNZ will be using its 90 recommendations to improve the dozens of National Sporting Organisations under its oversight.
"This will be a team effort. We will work with Cycling New Zealand and other sports to implement the plan to further support athletes, coaches and support staff to ensure their training and performance environments are allowing them to thrive and succeed," Castle said.
Cycling NZ also said this morning it was committed to the recommendations of the 2022 Heron/Leberman report into the sporting body's culture.
Chairman Phil Holden said they accept the findings of the report, and have since appointed highly regarded sports administrator, Kereyn Smith MNZM, as a transformational director at the organisation.
"Today is a milestone in our planning process, in that we are delighted to announce that the Cycling Integrity Steering Committee will be established and will be chaired by the Hon Kit Toogood QC. He has recently completed sitting as a High Court Judge for more than 11 years. He will bring a wealth of experience, integrity and mana to the committee.
"CNZ has been fully focused on accelerating the necessary changes within its high performance programme since late 2021. Good progress has been made, with a number of improvements in place that are already building a more positive high performance environment."
Smith will be overseeing Cycling NZ's response to the Heron/Leberman report while working with CNZ Board, staff, and athletes.
Castle also admitted today that her just over a year in the job as both Sport NZ and HPZNS chief executive has been a challenging period.
"I really wish that we weren't here because of Olivia's passing because that's not a situation which the Podmore family or Olivia's colleagues and support people from cycling ever wanted or dreamed of," she said.
"But the reality is we are, and we need to take every possible learning from that situation. It has meant we've looked hard at ourselves."
On May 16, when the 104-page report was finally released, it found a litany of cultural and structural deficiencies at the sporting organisation where 24-year-old Rio Olympian Olivia Podmore spent her entire adult life.
Fronting the media that day in Auckland were co-chairs of the report, Mike Heron QC and Massey Professor Sarah Leberman, alongside High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) chief executive Raelene Castle and Cycling NZ chairman Phil Holden.
"To the Podmore families, I am sorry, I am sorry for that experience, we should've done better," Holden said.
It was the first time Holden and Castle had publicly apologised for the death of Podmore on August 9.
Holden said the report was a difficult document to read and acknowledged many people in the interview process still have "unresolved trauma" from the 2016-18 period.
"That shocked us… Olivia Podmore was clearly part of that group," Holden said.
"We would like to be part of a process to address the trauma, if that is possible for the people concerned. We are starting to turn a corner ... but we have a long way to go. We are going to review everything. It's all on the table. We are not going to rest. We want this to be the last cycling inquiry."
Most alarming among the findings in the report was athletes' "fear of reprisals" for raising issues with coaches and management, a centralised high performance base in Cambridge that carries a "risk for athlete wellbeing" and should be entirely reconsidered, a lack of transparency with selection at Cycling NZ and a funding model at odds with wellbeing.
The inquiry also found a lack of appropriate women's health support and a reliance on traditional male networks - particularly within the coaching environment where there is a lack of women and diversity - and a lack of support for athletes when they arrive and leave the Cycling NZ high performance system.
Sports Minister Grant Robertson described Podmore's death as "tragic" in his post-Cabinet press conference and said this Cycling NZ inquiry was another that found glaring shortcomings with the wellbeing of female athletes.
For legal reasons around the yet-to-be-released coronial inquiry into Podmore's death, the 2021/22 Cycling NZ review is quite explicit that it was "not tasked with reporting on Olivia's experiences of CNZ or HPSNZ".
Heron said they had received a lot of information about Podmore but they weren't there to form views on her particular experience. However, themes that emerged in the report "echoed some of Podmore's experiences".
In her final social media post Podmore alleged a "cover up" at Cycling NZ and a list of behind-the-scenes disputes with the sporting organisation have been reported by the Herald over the past nine months.
The recruitment of Cycling NZ coaches on the basis of their technical knowledge of competition and "too little emphasis on personality, EQ, soft skills and integrity" received scrutiny and censure in the report.
Since the commissioning of the 2021/22 report, Cycling NZ chief executive Jacques Landry, high performance director Martin Barras and head sprint coach Rene Wolff have all "resigned".
SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION
Where to get help:
• Lifeline: 0800
543 354 (available 24/7)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
(available 24/7)
• Youthline:
0800 376 633 or text 234 (available 24/7)
• Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7)
• Whatsup: 0800 942
8787 (12pm to 11pm)
• Depression
helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (available 24/7)
• Anxiety
helpline: 0800 269 4389 (0800 ANXIETY) (available 24/7)
• Rainbow Youth: (09)
376 4155
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
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