Jess Varnish: Give me back my place for the Rio Olympics

Varnish targets return for Rio
Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Jess Varnish has set her sights on winning her place back in the British team for the Olympics in August despite being axed from the cycling programme.

Varnish did not have her contract renewed with British Cycling after the World Championships in London and claimed then technical director Shane Sutton had told her “to move on and get on with having a baby”.

Sutton, who has since resigned and is in the midst of an independent investigation, has denied making the comments while British Cycling have stood by their selection criteria.

Varnish has contacted Andy Harrison, who as programmes director is now effectively the head of the Rio-bound British team, and the pair are scheduled to meet in Manchester after she returns this week from Australia where she has been training.

“I hope that on hearing my case and with the knowledge that I have been doing the best I can under the circumstances to maintain my fitness on the track, Andy Harrison and British Cycling will give me the chance to get back on the British Cycling programme ahead of selection for Rio,” she said.

“It has been a dream for me ever since London 2012 to compete and be successful in Rio. My immediate priority is to win back my place on the British Cycling team ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games and to prove that I was, and still am, good enough to win medals for Great Britain.”

Sutton claimed that Varnish had only been dropped on performance grounds and denied it had anything do with her public criticism of British Cycling after she and Katy Marchant failed to qualify for the team sprint at the Olympics.

But Varnish disagreed: “I still maintain the decision not to renew my contract was not down to performance. Prior to the 2016 World Championships, I was not once told that I was under-performing.

“We have monthly reviews and at no stage was I put under review or set performance targets to keep my place on the programme.

“The first I knew that the coaches had an issue with my performance levels or training data was five days after the 2016 World Championships when I was told that I wouldn’t be getting a new contract over the phone.”

Varnish pointed out during the two-year qualification window for Rio that she had gained more points than any other rider — 489 points to the 410 of Marchant, who looks likely to take the second women’s sprint spot in the team in Rio along with Becky James, who because of injury and illness only picked up 66 qualification points.

Team GB Rio Oympics 2016 Kit designed by Stella McCartney

1/21

In addition, she pointed out she had qualified the individual spots for Great Britain in the keirin and sprint, and that “I was consistently performing in the top five in the world for lap one times in the team sprint”.

British Cycling have already made it clear there is no avenue for a ride-off between Varnish and Marchant as it is not in the organisation’s selection criteria while Varnish has no more races in which to prove herself in the build-up to the Games.

A source at the organisation said it “would be difficult for a rider not on the programme to get into the Olympic team” adding that “there is no allowance for a ride-off”.

In a statement this morning, British Cycling said: “We cannot comment on the chances of any individual hoping to be selected for either the Olympics or the Paralympics before the relevant panels meet.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in