Sportblog | The Guardian — Nicole Cooke RSS

Jan 29, 2017

In sport ‘no positive tests’ is not the same as ‘there is no doping’ | Sean Ingle

Nicole Cooke’s evidence to parliament underlines how ruling bodies like the RFU would be unwise to believe their testing reveals the full extent of dopingYou know the most remarkable thing about Nicole Cooke’s eviscerating evidence to parliament last week, which detailed staggering cases of institutional sexism by British Cycling, lax responses by the authorities when she reported doping violations and poor governance by some of the most august UK sporting bodies? Nobody denied it. Not one person. Not one authority. No one.I saw MPs shake their heads several times while they heard Cooke, an Olympic, world and Commonwealth road race champion, tell her story. Some of them looked incredulous when Cooke explained that, as a 19-year-old, she had gone to...

Dec 29, 2016

Nicole Cooke: Team Sky and British Cycling supply more questions than answers

Shane Sutton and David Brailsford’s appearances in front of the culture, media and sport committee sparked so many flashbacks to my frustration in trying to deal with British CyclingThe reputations of British Cycling, Team Sky, Bradley Wiggins and, by association, every contemporary British cyclist were all on the line in front of the culture, media and sport committee before Christmas. I felt for the MPs. They kept asking a very simple question: “Can you tell us what was in the Jiffy bag?”Time and again, as they sought to drag out answers, the MPs summed up the verbiage with a succinct response: “I am not sure whether that was a yes or a no.” I had so many flashbacks during those...