Although there have been whispers about the outcome of the appeal to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal after the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada\u2019s (SDRCC) decision after the women\u2019s team pursuit squad program was dropped for the upcoming worlds in October, it\u2019s now official. The SDRCC rejected the athletes\u2019 appeal on Aug. 10 as was made public on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Next steps for the Canadian athletes<\/p>\n
As reported by Canadian Press<\/a>, the Canadian track riders are now taking their fight for a women\u2019s team pursuit entry at this year\u2019s world championships to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. This was following the rejection of the appeal.<\/p>\n The appeal followed after the news that Cycling Canada was planning to send a men\u2019s pursuit team to the worlds in Shanghai, but not a women\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n Cycling Canada\u2019s initial email<\/p>\n In an email, Cycling Canada told athletes and coaches the news, citing performance projections and budget constraints.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the outcome of the review and current budgetary constraints faced by Cycling Canada, it was established that a women\u2019s team pursuit should not be sent to 2026 world championships. Resources will instead be directed toward individual events and team pursuit development initiatives within the Women Track Endurance Program,\u201d the email read. \u201cAs Cycling Canada focuses on team pursuit development, we will continue to pursue the qualification for the women\u2019s omnium and madison at the 2028 L.A. Olympic Games. This will include support of athletes at the necessary events to qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n The appeal<\/p>\n Following that, Skyler Goudswaard, Fiona Majendie, Jenna Nestman, Lily Plante and Justine Thomas, who were represented by Amanda Fowler and Dr. Emir Crowne, launched the appeal. In 2012 and 2016, the women\u2019s team pursuit snagged bronze at the Olympics.<\/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 said in a joint statement.<\/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 Now, the athletes are asking the Human Rights Tribunal for an interim order requiring Cycling Canada to send a TP squad to Shanghai. The registration deadline is exactly a month away, Sept. 21.<\/p>\n In their filing, the cyclists said missing the event would mean they \u201cwill permanently lose the ranking points available at the first Olympic qualifying event.\u201d It was also an important part of the training and competition pathway toward the 2028 Games.<\/p>\n Women\u2019s team pursuit rider on program cut: \u2018I am left feeling helpless\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The organization previously said its decision to send a men\u2019s team but not a women\u2019s team was based on performance data showing the men were closer to reaching the world\u2019s top six,<\/a> as well as budget constraints. In the aftermath of the decision, two Cycling Canada board members also resigned.<\/a><\/p>\n Arbitrator Carol Roberts said she could not conclude that Cycling Canada\u2019s decision was \u201cunreasonable or inequitable.\u201d She also said that it was consistent with the federation\u2019s \u201cpublished criteria and objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n Team Canada is currently at the junior world track championships in Belgium. Racing began on Tuesday and runs to Sunday. The Canadian women\u2019s team qualified second behind Britain in the qualifiers<\/a>, breaking the Canadian record. Eight teams went on, with Canada placing fourth. On that team are Alexandra Fangeat and Eve Buczkowski<\/a>, who both broke the world record for individual pursuit in April 2025. At last year\u2019s track worlds, Fangeat also took bronze in the IP.<\/p>\n Canadian Cycling Magazine has reached out to Cycling Canada and some of the riders involved for additional comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although there have been whispers about the outcome of the appeal to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,289,2019,21209],"class_list":["post-176962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-olympics","tag-team-canada","tag-womens-team-pursuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}