Canadian women's team pursuit riders appeal Cycling Canada's decision

Canadians Fiona Majendie (255), Erin J Attwell (249), Ruby West (259) and Lily Plante (258) ride during qualifying in the Women's Team Pursuit at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Ont., Thursday, May 12, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power

Five Canadian track cyclists who compete in the women’s team pursuit are appealing Cycling Canada’s decision not to enter them in the world championship.

Fiona Majendie, Skyler Goudswaard, Jenna Nestman, Lily Plante and Justine Thomas are taking their case to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada.

Cycling Canada intends to enter a men’s pursuit team in October’s world championship in Shanghai, which is the first qualifier for countries for the 2028 Olympic Games, but not a women’s team.

The women’s team pursuit has historically been a strong event for Canada, with Olympic bronze medals in 2012 and 2016 before a fourth-place finish in 2021.

Canada currently ranks 12th in the world in women’s team pursuit and the men 13th.

Canadian men placed eighth and the women 10th at a World Cup in April in Hong Kong.

“The athletes remain committed to a constructive and fair resolution that ensures consistent and equitable opportunities for all athletes,” lawyers Amanda Fowler and Dr. Emir Crowne, who are representing the athletes in the dispute, said in a joint statement.

Cycling Canada said the decision was based on performance analysis showing the men are closer to closing the gap on a world top-six ranking than the women, along with budget limitations.

“Based on what we’ve seen in competition over the last 18 months, certainly the men are showing that the gap is smaller to reach that top four, top six,” Cycling Canada CEO Mathieu Boucher said earlier this week.

“Unfortunately, the hard reality is that with the current composition of the team, we don’t foresee that the women’s team pursuit can be competitive as we need to be to continue to receive funding for the program, to continue to get sponsorship and to justify the investment.”

Majendie, who was an alternate on Canada’s Olympic team that placed eighth in the 2024 Olympic Games and helped the team to fourth at the world championship that year, said the decision left her and others on the team stunned.

“At least if we could have developed ourselves this summer and then showed up to worlds and ridden a good time, then we would have been happy with that improvement,” said the 28-year-old from Vancouver. “But now they’ve taken that opportunity away from us.”

Boucher said in an interview this week that the door was open to pursuing qualification for the women for Los Angeles in 2028 if “we see amazing talent and we can demonstrate that with proper training, we can be competitive, we’re going to find the money to qualify the team for L.A. and to be competitive.”

But Boucher and team coach Phil Abbott wrote in correspondence to the athletes earlier this month that L.A. was unlikely for the women’s pursuit team and that developing a team for 2032 was the objective.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press