{"id":668935,"date":"2026-05-13T20:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668935\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T20:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:38:09","slug":"5-athletes-file-appeal-against-cycling-canadas-cancellation-of-womens-team-pursuit-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668935\/","title":{"rendered":"5 athletes file appeal against Cycling Canada’s cancellation of Women’s Team Pursuit program"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Canadian Cycling Magazine\u00a0broke the story that\u00a0Cycling Canada announced it was pausing its women\u2019s team pursuit program and\u00a0would not be sending a women\u2019s team pursuit squad to this year\u2019s world championships in Shanghai, China<\/a>, the governing body presented the news as a final decision. The response online, from the athlete\u2019s open letter to Cycling Canada<\/a> to the immediate and massive show of support for the current athletes and the team pursuit program<\/a>, suggests this discussion was just getting started.<\/p>\n

Now, five athletes from the women\u2019s team pursuit program are filing an appeal against Cycling Canada. The CBC<\/a> reports that Skyler Goudswaard, Fiona Majendie, Jenna Nestman,\u00a0 Lily Plante, and Justine Thomas have filed an appeal with\u00a0Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada. That appeal challenges Cycling Canada\u2019s decision not to send a women\u2019s team pursuit squad to 2026 world championships.<\/p>\n

Selection woes at Cycling Canada<\/p>\n

The five riders are being represented by Amanda Fowler and Dr. Emir Crowne. If those names sound familiar, it could be because they recently represented Dylan Bibic as he successfully fought Cycling Canada to race the omnium at 2025 world championships<\/a>. The two cases bear some similarity, as unfair assessment and selection criteria are central to both cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs reflected in public reporting, the athletes received no meaningful notice before an entire program was cut, eliminating a critical Olympic pathway,\u201d Fowler and Dr. Crowne argue in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

In the case of the women\u2019s team pursuit program, though, the appeal also questions whether the athlete\u2019s gender factored unfairly into the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision raises serious questions about fairness, consistency, and whether female athletes are being afforded the same opportunity to compete and progress as the men\u2019s program,\u201d Fowler and Dr. Crowne added.<\/p>\n

Performance gaps and trust gaps: Cycling Canada\u2019s CEO speaks on the women\u2019s team pursuit squad\u2019s exclusion from track world champs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As has been pointed out repeatedly, Cycling Canada has cancelled the women\u2019s team pursuit program, but not the men\u2019s. This despite the women\u2019s program being, historically, the much more successful of the two programs.<\/p>\n

A matter of performance?<\/p>\n

In a conversation with\u00a0Canadian Cycling Magazine, Cycling Canada CEO Mathieu Boucher argued that<\/a>, while the news may not have been communicated in the best way, the decision to cut the women\u2019s team pursuit program was made on the basis of performance.<\/p>\n

Kevin Field, a past head of performance strategy at Cycling Canada and a past DS to numerous pro teams, told Canadian Cycling Magazine<\/a>\u00a0that the decision and the way it was communicated reveal larger problems at the national sport organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s a private team or a national sports organizations high-performance (NSO HP) program, there is a duty of athlete care and a responsibility to handle these kinds of decisions with humanity, competence and dignity,\u201d Field says, referring to the way Cycling Canada made and communicated its decision.<\/p>\n

There may be some valid reasons for cancelling the women\u2019s team pursuit program, but there\u2019s more to it<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

That points to a larger, ongoing issue Field sees at the organization that extends beyond the women\u2019s team pursuit program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t actually think the central issue is women\u2019s team pursuit specifically. I think it\u2019s whether the system is coherent,\u201d Field told\u00a0CCM. \u201cDo people understand how decisions are made? Do they believe the standards are applied consistently?Do athletes feel supported when things go wrong? Right now, it feels like there\u2019s a gap between performance language and lived understanding. And that gap appears to create mistrust.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Canadian Cycling Magazine\u00a0broke the story that\u00a0Cycling Canada announced it was pausing its women\u2019s team pursuit program and\u00a0would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-668935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}