Wendy Houvenaghel blasts cycling team-mates & coach

madden2011

Wendy Houvenaghel has criticised her GB team-mates and coach Shane Sutton after missing out on a gold medal.

The Northern Ireland rider was left out of all three team pursuit races as Dani King, Laura Trott and Jo Rowsell won gold in a world record time.

Houvenaghel described the trio as "juvenile" after claiming they did not speak to her following the final.

More... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19147279

It was the news headline over here in NI. Wendy isnt happy at all about being left out. I think she'll just make life difficult for herself by publically criticising everybody. Why would they change a winning team anyway, who won easily and broke the world record. Bit of sour grapes I reckon

slim_boy_fat

Gold medal, world record.

nweststeyn

If she's reacting like this publicly now then I can only imagine what she's been like in private - therefore I'm not at all surprised that they will not speak to her.

oldwelshman

I dont think it will be her who will decide her fututre, I think her comments have already decided it. Obviously she's dissapointed but so was Andt Tennant. They will not be happy disclosing times they do in training, and also it is different in training than doing it after a wr ride earlier in day.There are plenty more young riders coming through so maybe she knows this so decided to speak out.

nweststeyn

...and her reasoning that one of her teammates was 'sick' is a very misleading argument to use. Laura Trott usually vomits after races, and still produces strong performances despite it. She makes it sound like Trott is suffering from food poisoning or something.

Jez mon

She's 37, probably not going to another olympics anyway, and sees the final chance of a gold medal go sailing by. Think it's pretty understandable tbh, but obviously extremely unprofessional.

t.m.h.n.e.t

With the exception of Rowsell (or after a little number tweaking) Wendy is old enough to mother the entire team.

She clearly wasn't good enough to be used or there was no substantial reason to use her - the team reflected that. Bitching to Steven Watson for 8 minutes was never going to do anything but get BC coaches backs up and it will never put gold around her neck.

In fact, after embarrassing this country with her temper tantrum I'm glad she didn't medal.

Beatmaker

The story seems a little bizarre, promising her a ride in the semi and final. To be honest she needs to adjust her attitude and realise this happens in top level sport. It unfortunate but blaming SS and calling her team mates juvenile won't win her many supporters. She also seems pretty intent on creating a them and us atmosphere with the constant referrals to denying NI a medal. Everyones fault but her own.

Keith1983

Maybe during a London Olympics she should have demonstrated a bit more British stiff upper lip. I feel for her being the one left out, but it's not a secret that they can't all ride. If she wasn't prepared to be left out she should have been prepared to let someone else travel instead.

awavey

from what i remember reading before the Olympics,Wendy had already said she was planning to retire afterwards anyway (bit of a theme developing there) so she has nothing to lose by sounding off like this necessarily

and Laura confirmed in her Telegraph diary, that Joanna Rowsell woke up on Saturday feeling ill, they think it was nerves rather than food poisoning, but clearly Wendy was told to warm up at somepoint to prepare to take Joannas place. (and I remember seeing her on the rollers sprinting quite hard during the heats as well for someone who wasnt expecting to race).

but instead Shane decided to swap Dani/Laura & Jo around to give Jo more help in the race, which actually meant Laura did half the semi final race in the lead position. Now she is a powerhouse and capable of doing it, but shes also the smallest of the team and the others dont get as much aero help from having her in the lead for so long, you wouldnt set them up tactically that way if you could avoid it at all.

and actually thinking back to it, the semifinal race, they got all abit more strung out than weve been used to seeing, which was put down to the pace and breaking the WR again they achieved, but it was possibly a lot more on a knife edge than it appeared at the time.

so Wendy probably has right to feel disappointed, even when someone in the team is not 100%, even if it meant they took a bigger risk and potentially screwing the whole thing up, and had to change the tactics round, she still doesnt get a look in,and yeah if she was told she'd be competing, why put yourself through all those hours of training and commitment just to watch from the sidelines, give the water carrier job to one of the juniors if your not going to make use of the 4th rider properly the experience would do them better for the future, and its not that Wendy wasnt able to have just slotted straight in to the team, they train precisely for that reason

the aggreived bit I dont know depends how the team handled it, though by the sounds of it not exceedingly well, but it just adds to the impression along with Vickys issues, that they arent as much of a "team" as you think, there are clearly some deep personality fault lines in there.

Daz555

Not BCs job to hand out gold medals to its squad. The 3 they picked set 6 WRs in a row. You don't often mess with such a team.

PBo

Until this outburst, I felt sorry for her. Who wouldn't?

But.....even if she has been treated a bit ruthlessly....and given BC are all about winning, it wouldn't surprise me if she has been.... I would have expected a 37 yo elder statesman to have taken it on the chin.

oldwelshman

awavey wrote:

from what i remember reading before the Olympics,Wendy had already said she was planning to retire afterwards anyway (bit of a theme developing there) so she has nothing to lose by sounding off like this necessarily

and Laura confirmed in her Telegraph diary, that Joanna Rowsell woke up on Saturday feeling ill, they think it was nerves rather than food poisoning, but clearly Wendy was told to warm up at somepoint to prepare to take Joannas place. (and I remember seeing her on the rollers sprinting quite hard during the heats as well for someone who wasnt expecting to race).

but instead Shane decided to swap Dani/Laura & Jo around to give Jo more help in the race, which actually meant Laura did half the semi final race in the lead position. Now she is a powerhouse and capable of doing it, but shes also the smallest of the team and the others dont get as much aero help from having her in the lead for so long, you wouldnt set them up tactically that way if you could avoid it at all.

and actually thinking back to it, the semifinal race, they got all abit more strung out than weve been used to seeing, which was put down to the pace and breaking the WR again they achieved, but it was possibly a lot more on a knife edge than it appeared at the time.

so Wendy probably has right to feel disappointed, even when someone in the team is not 100%, even if it meant they took a bigger risk and potentially screwing the whole thing up, and had to change the tactics round, she still doesnt get a look in,and yeah if she was told she'd be competing, why put yourself through all those hours of training and commitment just to watch from the sidelines, give the water carrier job to one of the juniors if your not going to make use of the 4th rider properly the experience would do them better for the future, and its not that Wendy wasnt able to have just slotted straight in to the team, they train precisely for that reason

the aggreived bit I dont know depends how the team handled it, though by the sounds of it not exceedingly well, but it just adds to the impression along with Vickys issues, that they arent as much of a "team" as you think, there are clearly some deep personality fault lines in there.

How do you work out Laura did half the race when she was doing 1.5 lap turns, as did Dani. Jo still did the start and also did not miss a turn just did one half lap turn.
Also what do you mean by strung out? They were not strung out at all duruing the race only slightly at the end which is easy to do at that pace.
They actually went a lot faster in the final a short time later and finished closer, which you failed to point out.
Also, of course she was on the rollers before the race, the 4th member does the same as others in case of problems, nothing to do with being promised to race, Andy Tennant did exactly the same. They all have the same warm up and down routine for pursuit.

Dorset_Boy

Six World Records in a row, capped with a gold medal says it all.

Only a mug would have changed the team if they were all fit enough to ride (which the repeated bettering of the WR proves). Sorry Wendy, but you are well out of order.

hammerite

BC seem pretty good about looking after their retired riders, getting them coaching experience and providing jobs. May have been a nice NI talent development role in it for her.... not much chance now.

The 4th (or 5th rider in Tenants case) should be as prepared and as well trained as the chosen team just in case anything were to happen. If she was going to be used you'd have expected it in the qualifying/earlier rounds, with Trott rested as she's doing the Omnium.

socrates

But the team with Wendy in it went even quicker than the WR in practice so I think she has a valid point. Anyhow, it is supposed to be a team so why not give her a ride in one of the heats and al the girls get a medal. Age does not matter if she is good enough. Badly treated.

lostboysaint

socrates wrote:

But the team with Wendy in it went even quicker than the WR in practice so I think she has a valid point. Anyhow, it is supposed to be a team so why not give her a ride in one of the heats and al the girls get a medal. Age does not matter if she is good enough. Badly treated.

Allegedly.

And it makes no difference because none of us are the team management. The guys that are made the decision, the medal was won and the world record broken for the 6th time, end of story.

Pross

BC are masters at picking the best chances to win a race - no room for sentiment which is why they get results. You only have to look at their decision to pick Kenny over Hoy to see this, they obviously knew he was the better option but they would have faced a backlash had Jason not won. It would have been easy to put the spare team members in for a round and a lot of countries do this but BC picked the team they thought would be best. The gold and world records clearly prove they made the right decision. I'm surprised at Wendy as she has never struck me as this type of person, possibly emotion having missed out on an individual gold to her own team mate last time and then missing out in a gold medal winning team this time?

top_bhoy

She is in a no-win situation...the team won gold and team mgt will justify their choice by that alone. However there is a way to treat people irrespective of whether they are at the top level of sport or the office junior (no offence to office juniors). It will come out in the fullness of time whether she was badly treated and made to feel 'used' or the outburst was borne out of frustration at missing a medal (rather than sour grapes).

I thought all members of the team got medals, clearly this isn't the case. Seems patently unfair that when a rider does the same training, same pre-race preparation, undergoes a similar mental build up as the rest of the team and is in the accredited area during the event as a team member ready to participate at any stage, they are denied a medal because they didn't actually start.....that clearly doesn't foster a team attitude.

Will there be members of the winning football/hockey/team denied a medal if they haven't played a game? In other comps its normally the entire registered squad of these sports so I would be surprised if the Olympics are different for them. I have some sympathy for Wendy Houvenaghel.

Pross

I'm sure BC would have loved for her to have a medal but that's not their decision. Football tournaments require squad members to have played a certain amount of games in many cases. Also, we have only heard one side of the story so we don't know if she has been badly treated or not.

inkyfingers

I can see why she's peeved, but that's life sadly. I was there on Friday when they did their qualifying ride and they were super slick (and beat the WR) so it would have been a very brave decision to change the team unless one of them was ill or injured.

top_bhoy

Pross wrote:

I'm sure BC would have loved for her to have a medal but that's not their decision. Football tournaments require squad members to have played a certain amount of games in many cases. Also, we have only heard one side of the story so we don't know if she has been badly treated or not.

I can't say much about the hockey rules but at the football world cup, all members of the squad, irrespective of whether thay played during the finals games or not, are eligible for a medal. The rule was brought in a few years ago - and retrospectively awarded. I think Champions League requires the player to be on the bench as a named substitution; hence Roy Keane never picked up a CL medal in '99.
Agree, we have only heard one side of the story and it'll all come out eventually what happened or who done what.

Pross

As always there's three sides to a story - yours, their's and the truth!

cogidubnus

What ever the story is, the 3 they picked set 6 consecutive world records and brought back the gold. Not sure how you can change the team in light of that

rockmount

Yeah ... imagine working your ass off day in, day out for four years ... then being left out at at the last minute, what right have you possibly got to be upset.

Pross

Plenty of athletes work their backsides off over a four year Olympic period, some get to take part and some don't. Look at how ruthless the rowing selectors are for moving people out of boats! However not many of them go off whinging to the press about it. I like Houvenagel but I'm disappointed and surprised at her behaving like this. I'm not saying BC have covered themselves in glory in the way they handled it but a seasoned pro shouldn't react like that.

slim_boy_fat

rockmount wrote:

Yeah ... imagine working your ass off day in, day out for four years ... then being left out at at the last minute, what right have you possibly got to be upset.

I'm not sure anyone has said she shouldn't be upset but to start having a go at everyone else is completely different altogether.

rockmount

Pross wrote:

Plenty of athletes work their backsides off over a four year Olympic period, some get to take part and some don't. Look at how ruthless the rowing selectors are for moving people out of boats! However not many of them go off whinging to the press about it. I like Houvenagel but I'm disappointed and surprised at her behaving like this. I'm not saying BC have covered themselves in glory in the way they handled it but a seasoned pro shouldn't react like that.

..perhaps she knows more about the facts of the situation than you do ?

tailwindhome

Do BC/Sky not have a bit of a reputation for ruthless decision making?

tailwindhome

rockmount wrote:

Pross wrote:

Plenty of athletes work their backsides off over a four year Olympic period, some get to take part and some don't. Look at how ruthless the rowing selectors are for moving people out of boats! However not many of them go off whinging to the press about it. I like Houvenagel but I'm disappointed and surprised at her behaving like this. I'm not saying BC have covered themselves in glory in the way they handled it but a seasoned pro shouldn't react like that.

..perhaps she knows more about the facts of the situation than you do ?

The facts of the situation are IMHO largely irrelevant, going 'slabbering' on TV about your coach/ team mates is bad form

cf Roy Keane

slim_boy_fat

TailWindHome wrote:

Do BC/Sky not have a bit of a reputation for ruthless decision making?

Isn't that true of any successful management team, be it sport or business?