Why was Pendleton's coach fired?

frenchfighter

For them being together when we have this:









And as an aside, major fail for Trott due to this:



And then randomly this one of Laura with Wiggins and his Athens gold

dougzz

Because the coach is like a boss, in a position of power and significance, like a teacher. Kenny is just a schoolmate.
Pendleton's partner was sharing a flat with another of the coaches that regularly spent the evening slagging her off for attitude and personality, whilst b/f sat there playing dumb. Proper deception as opposed to keeping it quiet to avoid publicity.

rozzer32

I think that the relationship between a cyclist and coach is very different from two cyclists.

Jason and Laura have their own programmes, own routines etc. They will be doing different things to get their gold medals.

However Vicky and Scott's relationship was also a working one. There relationship could have affected decisions made. However I'm glad Scott came back to working for BC and with Vicky. Surely it makes sense that if Vicky is happy with the people around her then it will help her performances.

Abdoujaparov

Sutton and Van Eijden's reaction to Pendleton and Gardner's relationship was pretty backward and childish if you ask me. And for Shane Sutton to let the cat out of the bag on the day Pendleton won Olympic gold was disgraceful - trashed the big moment for her and will almost certainly have had unhelpful subconcious effects on her desire to train like a beast for more major success.

Bear also in mind that Gardner wasn't Pendleton's coach, Van Eijden was. And in his reaction to Vicky and Scott falling in love, I think there was an element of his attraction to Vicky.

Some other members of the track cycling team I think came across in that documentary as a little emotionally retarded.

Tom Butcher

Yeah BC didn't come out of it well. There have to be guidelines on relationships between athletes and coaches but not a blanket ban - we are talking about adults in their late 20s here not kids and young adults. The relationship between coach and athlete may be like a teacher-pupil at BC but I doubt it that is a necessary coach - athlete model. Will the likes of Nadal or Messi have that kind of relationship with their coaches - or will it be more one of equals ?

The "proper deception" as it is described above was forced on them because of the stupid rules - emotionally retarded is how some of them came across to me too.

Le Commentateur

You can't have an impartial discussion about an athlete's performance or career trajectory if one of the team is their partner - it undermines trust because not everything discussed is going to be pleasant for the athlete, so that puts the partner in a position of having divided loyalties, or even being deceptive. And the other coaches can never be sure what is discussed in confidence won't find its way back to the athlete.

inkyfingers

As somebody who met their fiancee at work I can tell you these things are not simple...

I do however think there is a big difference between there being a relationship between two of the riders and there being a a relationship between one of the riders and one of the coaching staff. A rider is unlikely to be put in a position where they have to make an objective decision about say whether a fellow rider should be picked for a team or whether they need to be disciplined for not training hard enough, but if a member of the coaching staff is seen as having any favouritism then it could cause huge rifts in the camp.

disgruntledgoat

Why is talking to Prince Harry a "major fail"?

iPete

Do you have a Trott shrine :shock:

frenchfighter

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Why is talking to Prince Harry a "major fail"?

Are you a royalist (small R)?

Tom BB

...there's very little royal blood in Prince Harry

ratherbeintobago

Tom BB wrote:

...there's very little royal blood in Prince Harry

Dunno; he looks a lot like his paternal grandfather.

frenchfighter wrote:

Are you a royalist (small R)?

I have two words. Those words are President Blair. Suddenly a constitutional monarchy is much more appealing, isn't it?

Andy

Tom BB

He also looks a lot like James Hewitt

Monty Dog

^ just as well they can't just haul folks off to the Tower.

Personal relationships in senior business positions are difficult, I've seen people moved and fired because it compromised their position to exercise fair judgement. There is probably an ethical behaviour clause in the BC athlete's contract that requires them to disclose such issues.

derbygrimpeur

I don't understand why people think BC's ban is backward. He was her coach, sharing a flat with another coach, who slagged off the moany athlete. To keep the relationship secret abused the trust of the coaching staff. I would have been fuming. Had they been honest about their relationship, maybe they could have found a way to work it out (like they ended up doing in the end).

Tom Butcher

You have to ask the question why they kept the relationship secret - and really if the other coach was slagging Pendleton off amongst the coaching staff that in itself is hardly professional is it.

derbygrimpeur

depends, if he was saying, "Flippin' 'eck me old mucka, Vicky was well moany today. She needs to man up" then I don't think that's unprofessional. It's natural that people will bitch and moan and from what I saw on that documentary, VP seemed pretty high maintenance and it would be astonishing if it didn't frustrate the coaches from time to time.

frenchfighter

Moomaloid

derbygrimpeur wrote:

I don't understand why people think BC's ban is backward. He was her coach, sharing a flat with another coach, who slagged off the moany athlete. To keep the relationship secret abused the trust of the coaching staff. I would have been fuming. Had they been honest about their relationship, maybe they could have found a way to work it out (like they ended up doing in the end).

Bang on the money! Agree 100%.

Abdoujaparov

derbygrimpeur wrote:

I don't understand why people think BC's ban is backward. He was her coach, sharing a flat with another coach, who slagged off the moany athlete. To keep the relationship secret abused the trust of the coaching staff. I would have been fuming. Had they been honest about their relationship, maybe they could have found a way to work it out (like they ended up doing in the end).

I ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it.

I agree that Gardner and Pendleton couldn't continue to work together, at least not closely, but the way Sutton spilled the beans on the day Vicky won gold in Beijing was both counter-productive in terms of her continued success (enjoying winning is important) and, more importantly, a downright harsh thing to do.

Both him and van Eijden seemed to show a lack of understanding and respect for Vicky and Scott's emotions and the fact that these things can't be controlled. I'm sure Vicky and Scott should have handled it differently too, but fessing up in the early stages of a relationship would have been a hard thing to do because they wouldn't know how it was going to develop.

dougzz

Maybe for Sutton it felt like you reap what you sow.