A track cyclist from Vancouver has shared her disappointment following an unexpected decision by Cycling Canada not to send a women’s team pursuit squad to the upcoming world championships. Fiona Majendie, a member of Canada’s team pursuit that placed eighth at the Paris Olympics, expressed her surprise at the news, emphasizing the impact on their Olympic qualification prospects for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The decision, communicated via email by national team coach Phil Abbott, cited “current budgetary constraints” and doubts about the team’s performance at the 2026 world championships in Shanghai. While the Canadian men’s team pursuit remains unaffected and will participate in Shanghai, the exclusion of the women’s team has drawn criticism, including from retired Olympian Clara Hughes.
In response, Cycling Canada CEO Mathieu Boucher defended the decision as a strategic move based on performance analysis, indicating that the men’s team had a narrower performance gap for improvement compared to the women’s team. Majendie contested the lack of transparency in sharing performance data with the affected athletes.
Majendie and her teammates are considering self-financing their participation in the world championships and the 2028 Olympics to pursue their athletic goals independently. Boucher, however, reiterated that the women’s team pursuit, in its current configuration, was deemed non-competitive based on Cycling Canada’s assessment.
Canada’s women’s team pursuit has a history of success, winning bronze medals in 2012 and 2016 Olympics and finishing fourth in 2020. The athletes remain determined to challenge the decision and explore alternative pathways to continue their pursuit of competitive cycling.