More than 90 Canadian bobsleigh and skeleton athletes, current and retired, reiterate their calls for federal sports minister Pascale St-Onge to help them clean up what they say is a toxic climate in their sport .
The BCS Athlete for Change group originally wrote a public letter in March calling for the resignation of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) President Sarah Storey and High Performance Director Chris Le Bihan.
Athletes say systemic issues have plagued BCS for the eight years since Storey’s election that have gone unrecognized by the organization.
They included a 24-page collection of questions and experiences of athletes lived or observed, which was presented to the BCS Board of Directors.
The letter included detailed findings from a recent review and assessment of BCS conducted by external consultant Nick Bass, Own the Podium’s High Performance Advisor.
The athletes say the current national and local participation in bobsleigh and skeleton is “concerning”, and noted that in 2019 bobsleigh saw the departure of three-time Olympic champion Kaillie Humphries to the United States.
There is an exodus of current athletes, they say, who choose to compete for other countries.
The letter comes amid what St-Onge called a “crisis” in safe sport in Canada.
Hockey Canada has been mired in sexual assault allegations that have seen many sponsors withdraw their support and St-Onge freeze their federal funding.
The bobsleigh and skeleton letter asks St-Onge to look beyond funding freezes to influence change, as it would only exacerbate the negative effects on athletes.
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