British Cycling announces staffing restructure in men's sprint team for Tokyo Olympics

British Cycling has announced that it has made a restructure to the staff involved with the men's sprint team following the dismissal of former head coach Kevin Stewart due to gross misconduct and a "long-term pattern of inappropriate behaviour."

Stewart, a former sprinter who represented Scotland at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, was sacked in November 2020 over his “inappropriate relationships” with riders. He apologised for his behaviour and admitted his actions were “not acceptable.”

The man who has been hired as the new men's sprint programme lead, Scott Pollock, was the English Institute of Sport (EIS) senior strength and conditioning coach working full time with BC before taking this promotion. Pollock started his new role on January 1 2021.

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Speaking in a press release, performance director Stephen Park said: "This has been a difficult period for our men’s sprint team, riders and staff alike, following the departure of our lead men's sprint coach at the end of 2020, but I am proud of the way the whole team have pulled together and have been able to work with maturity, understanding and honesty to identify a solution in which we all have confidence.

"We did consider bringing in new staff from outside the programme however ultimately we determined that an in-house solution will best ensure we stay on track to achieve our ambitions for the men’s sprint squad at the forthcoming Olympic Games.

"Scott will be supported by Lewis Marsden, EIS performance analyst working full time with British Cycling, who has assumed the role of ‘lead for track programming’ and taken responsibility for the development of individual rider ‘on-track’ training programme design and front-line delivery of each track session."

The British track team will be hoping to continue their success at the Olympic Games after being one the dominant forces in Olympic track cycling for over a decade taking multiple golds and world records along the way.

The women's sprint team will continue with the same staff but head coach Jan van Eijden and academy coach, Andy Leveton, are available for Pollock as consultants if support is required.

The Olympic Games are due to go ahead on July 21 in Tokyo, Japan a year after it was originally meant to take place due the the postponement caused by Covid-19.