This post doesn’t need to be very long. It asks one simple question – why did Sport New Zealand lie to us?

Most of us remember the day, last August, when Olivia Podmore died. After publishing an Instagram message about the stress she was under at Cycling New Zealand’s centralised facility in Cambridge, at 4.00pm on Monday 9 August 2021, life got too much. Olivia Podmore decided suicide was her only option.

Mainstream media were full of the news. Sport New Zealand and Cycling New Zealand officials clamoured to outdo their praise of Podmore’s life. “Forever in our hearts” and “will never be forgotten” messages were spread around like confetti at a royal wedding. Within two weeks Raylene Castle had formed yet another inquiry. Michael Heron QC, Dr Sarah Leberman MNZM, Dr Lesley Nicol ONZM and Genevieve Macky were appointed. Together with the coroner the truth behind Olivia’s death was at the top of Raylene Castle’s urgent list.

In fact, their concern for the dead cyclist was so great, Castle and the Inquiry published a statement that said this.

“We propose to deliver our draft in February 2022, and hope that this will give us time to connect with more participants in person, visit the home of Cycling New Zealand in Cambridge, and come together as a panel for a hui to discuss our findings and recommendations. Cycling New Zealand and HPSNZ have agreed to that proposal.”

They also told the Cambridge newspaper this.

“The results of the inquiry will not be known until early next year but already Cycling New Zealand has announced the closure of four regional development hubs in Invercargill, Christchurch, Auckland and Cambridge. The hubs, will close in March,”

Now I could well have missed something but consider the following.

We are now at the end of March which is way past “February 2022” and “early next year.”

I have heard and read nothing about a draft report being published or about regional hubs being closed.

I have heard and read nothing about a mostly white hui being held in Cambridge to discuss a Report into Olivia Podmore’s death. Incidentally it pisses me off when I read token Maori words being used like that. It’s the most racist thing imaginable.

And so, my questions are simply

Where is the draft report?

Why is it two months late?

Why did Castle and her Inquiry lie to us about the publication date?  

Have the Cycling New Zealand Regional Hubs been closed or was that another lie?

Why have Sport New Zealand and Cycling New Zealand lied to a dead New Zealand cyclist? “Forever in our hearts” obviously doesn’t mean much when it comes from Sport New Zealand. Unless of course their definition of forever is eight months.

Is the delay in publishing the Report caused by its contents? Are Sport New Zealand and Cycling New Zealand looking at criminal charges resulting from their abuse of a cyclist – because that’s certainly what Castle’s cycling program did – at their centralised training facility?

People involved in sport need answers to those questions. More importantly, the memory of Olivia Podmore has to stop being played by Castle and her mates like some political football game. If Castle wanted the Report out in February it would have been out in February. Why wasn’t it?