Speaker 1: A warning that this podcast contains discussion around suicide. You
Speaker 1: can find support services in our show notes. Kyota. I'm
Speaker 1: Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily
Speaker 1: podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. On August ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, the day after the Tokyo Olympics ended,
Speaker 1: cyclist Olivia Podmore died in a suspected suicide. She had
Speaker 1: represented New Zealand the twenty sixteen Olympics but was not selected.
Speaker 1: Five years later, her death sent shock waves through the
Speaker 1: close knit cycling community and wider sporting network and the
Speaker 1: culture at cycling and Z was eventually investigated. Now over
Speaker 1: three years later, a coronial inquiry and Podmore's death is
Speaker 1: due to begin today. And then Herald reported Tom Delaine
Speaker 1: has been covering the story for the last three years
Speaker 1: and joins us now on the front page to discuss
Speaker 1: Olivia Podmore's life, career and her tragic death. So, Tom,
Speaker 1: can you give us a brief overview of Olivia's career
Speaker 1: prior and her rise to the top.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as anyone in a New Zealand national sporting team,
Speaker 2: she was a talented young athlete.
Speaker 3: She grew up in christ Church.
Speaker 2: Her mother Ninky, said that she always had a fairly
Speaker 2: care free attitude to her cycling in her junior years.
Speaker 3: She had obvious talents.
Speaker 2: And that sort of care free attitude, she said, actually
Speaker 2: she thought helped her in the early days. She didn't
Speaker 2: get two worked up about the competition, she didn't overtrain,
Speaker 2: and that relaxed attitude helped her in junior competitions. She
Speaker 2: moved in to become a sprint cyclist, so you know,
Speaker 2: nerves and seconds counted in that kind of competition. She
Speaker 2: had a bit of a sporting pedigree as well. So
Speaker 2: both her parents were keen cyclists and her great grandfather
Speaker 2: was actually an Olympic weightlifter in the nineteen twenty eight Olympics.
Speaker 2: So yeah, after finishing school at seventeen, so she went
Speaker 2: straight in to train at the High Performance Sport New
Speaker 2: Zealand Center in Cambridge, and she made the twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: Reo Olympics when she was nineteen. She was selected for
Speaker 2: three sprint events there. But it was somewhat it was
Speaker 2: a turbulent experience those those twenty sixteen games. In her
Speaker 2: own words, she describes the experiences well, she describes it
Speaker 2: as it wasn't a great experience for me. She's somewhat
Speaker 2: underperformed in the events, and she had quite a dramatic
Speaker 2: crash in the twenty sixteen Olympics where she was knocked
Speaker 2: out for about forty five seconds, she says, and she
Speaker 2: rode straight after that in another event directly after being concussed,
Speaker 2: and that she didn't perform well understandably in that next event.
Speaker 2: So she had a quick introduction into the Olympic sports,
Speaker 2: as I guess a lot of cyclists are quite young
Speaker 2: when they performed. But yeah, quick introduction to the Olympic sport.
Speaker 2: But yeah, as a youth, quite quite relaxed about the sport.
Speaker 1: So fast forward to twenty twenty one. At what point
Speaker 1: does she learn that she's not going to be selected
Speaker 1: to go to Tokyo.
Speaker 2: The twenty twenty Tokyo Games were delayed obviously a year
Speaker 2: due to COVID, so they actually happened in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: and that made the selection process more drawn out. She
Speaker 2: wasn't selected technically, She found out she wasn't selected in
Speaker 2: August twenty twenty, but the team selection was dragged out
Speaker 2: for a year longer. There was a bunch of complicating
Speaker 2: factors around her non selection in the team. It's all
Speaker 2: sort of draws back to the twenty sixteen Games, where
Speaker 2: you know her place within Cycling New Zealand sort of
Speaker 2: surrounded by controversy. It's all come out since since her death.
Speaker 2: Podmore was caught up in a significant event that happened
Speaker 2: in the training camp prior to the twenty sixteen Rio
Speaker 2: Games that were in Bordeaux, France, six weeks out from
Speaker 2: those Rio Games. So basically a night out among the
Speaker 2: athletes and the coaches left Podmore without a roommate in
Speaker 2: the early hours of the morning. So she was nineteen
Speaker 2: years old then, so she reported to management at Cycling
Speaker 2: New Zealand the missing athlete. So by Podmore reporting that
Speaker 2: a member of the Cycling New Zealand team hadn't come
Speaker 2: home that night, that kicked off a process by basically
Speaker 2: exposing that this athlete was in a relationship with a
Speaker 2: Cycling New Zealand coach. That whole controversy, which which sort
Speaker 2: of begun right before the twenty sixteen Games, then eventually
Speaker 2: led into a whole inquiry within Cycling New Zealand. Following
Speaker 2: the twenty sixteen Olympics, so basically during that period she
Speaker 2: was caught up in this inquiry and it's since been
Speaker 2: exposed with a herald exposed.
Speaker 3: Following her death.
Speaker 2: That Podmore has understood to be an athlete that was
Speaker 2: pressured to lie during that inquiry was a twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: inquiry by Mike Herron, so that was reported in the
Speaker 2: inquiry that didn't name pod So she had already been
Speaker 2: pressured to lie within this inquiry around a relationship between
Speaker 2: a coach at Cycling New Zealand and an athlete. Following that,
Speaker 2: there's perceptions that she was marginalized within the High Performance
Speaker 2: Sport Cambridge camp following that inquiry. So the twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: Heron report found that there was favoritism from Peden to
Speaker 2: the athlete in which she was in a inappropriate relationship
Speaker 2: with people close to her. Yeah, as I said, felt
Speaker 2: that Podmore was marginalized within the camp following her involvement
Speaker 2: in that inquiry.
Speaker 3: So that was all in the background.
Speaker 2: She was also given a twenty thousand grand sporting grant
Speaker 2: for welfare reasons and the lead up to twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, and there was a whole lot of issues
Speaker 2: with her own performance during that period. To complicate matters
Speaker 2: even further, her partner in some of the sprint events
Speaker 2: that she was attempting to be selected for the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty Tokyo Games, Tesha Hansen, was also in a legal
Speaker 2: dispute with Cycling New Zealand over perceived obstacles in the
Speaker 2: selection path for her after they were initially rejected in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen from make the team. So anyway, in short,
Speaker 2: there was a whole lot of build up and hurdles
Speaker 2: that Podma had to face to get to the Tokyo Olympics.
Speaker 2: A lot of her friends and family felt that she
Speaker 2: was unfairly treated in not making the team, but she didn't.
Speaker 4: We've lost a sister, a friend, and a fighter. Olivia
Speaker 4: may have been the girl that you saw at the supermarket,
Speaker 4: at the gym, on the track on TV. She was
Speaker 4: loved and will be sorely missed.
Speaker 1: So today marks the start of the coronial inquest into
Speaker 1: Olivia's death. How long is this set to run for
Speaker 1: and what's it expected to cover?
Speaker 3: So it's set to run for three weeks.
Speaker 2: So in a technical sense, Corona's conduct inquiries to determine
Speaker 2: the cause and circumstances of death and to identify ways
Speaker 2: to prevent similar death in the future. In terms of
Speaker 2: the pod More inquiry, there'll be more than twenty five
Speaker 2: witnesses are expected to be called during the three weeks.
Speaker 2: That'll include former coaches of Podmore, past and present leaders
Speaker 2: of Cycling New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand,
Speaker 2: and also health professionals who treated Podmore. There's a number
Speaker 2: of non publication orders around names of health professionals and
Speaker 2: various people in a professional sense that were involved in Podmore,
Speaker 2: but there'll all be witnesses also speaking. Podmore's father Phil
Speaker 2: and her brother Mitchell, who participated in the inquest. They've
Speaker 2: never publicly spoken since Olivia's death, and I spoke to
Speaker 2: Phil in twenty twenty one after his daughter's death and
Speaker 2: he was He always maintained that he wouldn't speak publicly
Speaker 2: until the coronial inquiry, so it's taken three years to
Speaker 2: get to this point, but he'll be there. And also
Speaker 2: Olivia's mum, Kay, who's spoken a lot publicly since since
Speaker 2: her daughter's death and been highly critical of Cycling New Zealand. Yeah,
Speaker 2: in terms of what it's going to traverse the inquiry,
Speaker 2: you know. Basically, it'll be looking at the conditions within
Speaker 2: Cycling New Zealand and High Performance Sport and her medical
Speaker 2: care and how that environment contributed to her suspected suicide.
Speaker 2: There was a previous inquiry that began at the end
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty one that was again conducted by Casey
Speaker 2: Mike Caron who did the twenty eighteen inquiry into culture
Speaker 2: at Cycling New Zealand. It's hard not to see that
Speaker 2: inquiri as I mean, it's clearly a direct result of
Speaker 2: Podmore's death. But technically that inquiry into Cycling New Zealand
Speaker 2: could not really delve into the individual circumstances and factors
Speaker 2: that led to Podmore's death. It had to be focused
Speaker 2: more around the culture of the organization. So this coronial
Speaker 2: inquiry can delve directly into the personal circumstances of Olivia's
Speaker 2: experience there and treatment there. Also integral to the coronal
Speaker 2: inquiry as Olivia's medical records until now i've not been
Speaker 2: made public, been told by Ninki, her mum and her
Speaker 2: Nick's partner Chris Middleton, is over a thousand documents that
Speaker 2: they obtained from High Performance Sport in New Zealand and
Speaker 2: proves to be pretty disturbing reading from what I've been told,
Speaker 2: So her treatment and truman by coaches and medical records
Speaker 2: will come out in this coronial inquiry.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Mike Heron's report into Cycling New Zealand that
Speaker 1: was ordered after Olivia's death. It found a number of
Speaker 1: cultural and structural deficiencies at the sporting organization which prioritizes
Speaker 1: medals over well being. What were some of those revelations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was sort of the defining catchphrase that
Speaker 2: came out of that finding an organization that prioritizes medals
Speaker 2: over well being. In summary of the findings was a
Speaker 2: damning report. Most alarming among the findings was athletes had
Speaker 2: a sense of a fear of reprisals for raising issues
Speaker 2: with coaches and management. There was also a lot of
Speaker 2: criticism of the centralized high performance base in Cambridge that
Speaker 2: carries a risk for athlete well being, and Heron concluded
Speaker 2: that that having that base, you know, in Cambridge, where
Speaker 2: athletes from all around the country would travel to away
Speaker 2: from their families and live and train, that system should
Speaker 2: be entirely reconsidered. Also, a lack of transparency around selection
Speaker 2: at Cycling New Zealand for you know, Olympics and big
Speaker 2: events was highlighted as problematic and a funding model at
Speaker 2: odds with well being. The Hearon Report released in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two. It also found a lack of appropriate women's
Speaker 2: health support and a reliance on traditional mail networks, particularly
Speaker 2: within the coaching environment where there was a lack of
Speaker 2: women and diversity, and Podmore's coaches herself were the direct
Speaker 2: ones for her were men.
Speaker 1: It's been over two years since that report came out,
Speaker 1: to your understanding, has there been much change in the
Speaker 1: organization since then?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there was.
Speaker 2: There has been a at least publiclyff fit amongst Sport
Speaker 2: New Zealand high Performance Sport New Zealand to have athlete
Speaker 2: well being more center front and center in terms of
Speaker 2: how they structure their you know, their system, their runs
Speaker 2: towards big events like like Olympics and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: At the end of twenty twenty one, you know, just
Speaker 2: months after Olivia's death, High Performance Sport in New Zealand
Speaker 2: confirmed it would be funding seven point four million dollars
Speaker 2: to athlete well being initiatives over the next three years.
Speaker 2: So that was I guess, you know, significant tangible progress
Speaker 2: in terms of, you know, focusing on athlete well being
Speaker 2: over just results, and the CEO of High Performance Sport
Speaker 2: in New Zealand and Sport in New Zealand, Railing Castle,
Speaker 2: said that they would be working with the national sporting
Speaker 2: organizations to improve mental health literacy in athlete and having
Speaker 2: an athlete voice throughout the system.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean they have been conscious of.
Speaker 2: It and there has been more initiatives to have athlete
Speaker 2: input into how they're doing at these various sporting organizations.
Speaker 2: Whether that's translated to better athlete wellbeing, it's hard to measure.
Speaker 5: It stings a lot that she's not here now, like
Speaker 5: she should have been up there with us, but she's
Speaker 5: just taught us so much and she's with all of
Speaker 5: us every single day. Yeah, I think it's so hard
Speaker 5: to put into words. It's definitely how much it is
Speaker 5: a much nicer place to be here now. But we've
Speaker 5: always had a great support crew.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Things interesting when coronial inquests like this come out
Speaker 1: because they do happen years after the event, years after
Speaker 1: the death, and once we get to the results of
Speaker 1: the coronial inquest, which we won't know, we don't get
Speaker 1: a date exactly of when we get the results of
Speaker 1: the coronial inquest or the report. It seems to me
Speaker 1: like organizations have that act stop of saying, oh, well,
Speaker 1: in the years after we did this, we did this,
Speaker 1: we did this. But do you think given the secrecy
Speaker 1: and they haven't been transparent in any of this either,
Speaker 1: that a lot of dirty laundry that we haven't seen
Speaker 1: will come out in this inquest and they don't they
Speaker 1: won't have that option of saying we've done this, this,
Speaker 1: and this, because that may not be enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think in terms of obviously three weeks,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of material that's going to come out
Speaker 2: in that in that time, and it's clear from speaking
Speaker 2: to friends and family that she was getting psychological help
Speaker 2: within the organization, and that will be delved into in
Speaker 2: some detail, and whether there was appropriate duty of care
Speaker 2: from the organization around her. Certainly, speaking to friends of
Speaker 2: hers in the year before she died or when she'd
Speaker 2: found out that she wasn't making the Olympic team, they
Speaker 2: were pretty they were totally clear that she was really
Speaker 2: struggling mentally during that period and she was getting psychological
Speaker 2: help through at least the organization. Cycling New Zealand and
Speaker 2: High Performance Sports were aware that she was dealing with
Speaker 2: these issues, and as I said, there's over a thousand documents,
Speaker 2: help medical documents that are going to be explored in
Speaker 2: the inquiry, so you know, hard to believe there won't
Speaker 2: be some pretty concerning details brought out about the state
Speaker 2: she was in. Also delving into the coaching environment within
Speaker 2: the organization, so we've The Herald wrote about the toxic
Speaker 2: culture that was in place at Cycling New Zealand in
Speaker 2: the years prior to the twenty twenty Tokyo twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one happened in twenty twenty one, but the the Olympic
Speaker 2: cycle leading up to those games exposed a lot of
Speaker 2: toxic cultural elements to selection around the coaches there at
Speaker 2: the time. The lead sprint coach German Renee Wolfe and
Speaker 2: also the head selector for Cycling New Zealand Martin barras
Speaker 2: two coaches that some of their coaching style was heavily
Speaker 2: criticized by other athletes within the organization. Following Podmore's death,
Speaker 2: she obviously wasn't selected and both those coaches were removed
Speaker 2: from the organization or resigned, is the official line within
Speaker 2: about six months of Podmore's death. So I think that
Speaker 2: the depth of an unhealthy environment within cycling New Zealand
Speaker 2: will be, you would hope, will be laid bare in
Speaker 2: the inquiry in a lot more detail than we've had before.
Speaker 1: Tom, you've been following this story for three years now.
Speaker 1: I remember you wrote this big feature at the end
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty one about Olivia talking to her friends
Speaker 1: and family about her and her life. What are some
Speaker 1: of their memories that stick out to you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that process of doing that feature took
Speaker 2: months and spoke to a lot of people connected with her.
Speaker 2: I was struck by what a popular person she was
Speaker 2: and what a wide network of people she had. And
Speaker 2: I guess you know that these after someone's death in
Speaker 2: a suspected suicide, people always you know, it's not pretty
Speaker 2: common narrative to hear that people didn't see the warning
Speaker 2: signs and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: Some people knew she was dealing with issues.
Speaker 2: I know the start of that that days before she died,
Speaker 2: she was out skiing with former Olympic roller Eric Murray
Speaker 2: and another close friend of hers. I think she lived
Speaker 2: with him in Cambridge and they describe having this great
Speaker 2: fun weekend. This was literally days before she died, and
Speaker 2: just how that, you know, just that not really saying
Speaker 2: that the magnitude of what was about to happen. Well,
Speaker 2: also being somewhat aware of her struggles. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: it's interesting delving into a person's personal history like I
Speaker 2: did for that piece. Rereading it today, you just realize
Speaker 2: all the things she had to deal with as well.
Speaker 2: We you know, we traverses a little bit of her
Speaker 2: recreational drug use in the last year. Also just the
Speaker 2: situation she had to deal with her whole life. She
Speaker 2: had an abortion as a teenager, all the chaos that
Speaker 2: was that she was caught up with in cycling New Zealand.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's twofold. The memories from them,
Speaker 2: a lot of them were quite heartbreaking in terms of
Speaker 2: the stuff she'd had to deal with. But also she
Speaker 2: seemed like a person, a very affable, friendly person who
Speaker 2: you know, was obviously struggling with a lot, but also
Speaker 2: you know, very talented and had a lot of friendships
Speaker 2: in her life. And yeah, I guess this inquiry, I
Speaker 2: guess will be focusing in a way. It's an opportunity
Speaker 2: to focus on her as a person more than obviously
Speaker 2: the institutional negligence that perhaps contributed to her death would
Speaker 2: be delved into. But you know, there's going to be
Speaker 2: interviews with family members and it's really focused on her.
Speaker 2: That is, by definition what this is. So it'll be
Speaker 2: an opportunity to delve into her personal issues and I
Speaker 2: guess to some extent you'll get insight into the kind.
Speaker 3: Of person she is.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Tom, Thank you. That's it for
Speaker 1: this episode of the Front Page. You can read more
Speaker 1: about today's stories and extensive news coverage at NZ Herald
Speaker 1: dot co dot MZ. The Front Page is produced by
Speaker 1: Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also a sound engineer.
Speaker 1: I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow
Speaker 1: for another look behind the headlines.