‘Incompetent, disrespectful, catastrophic’: Aussie slams Paralympic organisers after horror crash

Paris: Australian cyclist Emily Petricola has slammed Paralympic officials and world cycling’s governing body, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), for presiding over “incompetent”, “disrespectful” and “catastrophic” issues during competition – involving a horror crash for a Chinese rider – that may have robbed her of a medal.

Australia’s Paralympic chef de mission Kate McLoughlin publicly backed Petricola and said she had not been treated appropriately by officials. Petricola and McLoughlin will write to the UCI seeking answers.

This masthead can reveal Petricola and her coach Shane Kelly, a five-time Olympian, are furious about her treatment during and after the women’s C4 time trial held on Wednesday, where the Australian finished in fourth place, just 4.11 seconds behind Switzerland’s Franziska Matile-Dörig who took the bronze medal. Petricola was nine seconds behind first place.

In an interview with this masthead, Petricola says she is speaking up not because she is bitter about missing out on a medal – she won a gold earlier in the Paralympics – but to call out the behaviour of officials.

“I don’t want to take away from the celebrations of the athletes that have been awarded medals,” Petricola said. “But there’s no way that this would ever happen at an elite, able-bodied competition, let alone an Olympics. It should never, ever happen at a Paralympic Games.

Emily Petricola won gold in the women’s C4 3000m individual pursuit earlier in the Paralympics.Credit: Getty Images

“I feel completely devastated, to be honest. It’s three years of work has gone into that one day and for it to fall apart, just because of a level of incompetence from administrators and people who’ve run the event … it’s really upsetting and really disrespectful.”

The controversy began as Petricola was preparing for her time trial and the athlete in front of her, China’s Li Xiaohui, set off down the ramp.

Video footage appears to show that Li, who has lower arm disability, did not have her bike set up straight. She swayed off the start gate and fell more than a metre on to the concrete below.

Li did not receive any medical attention. The Chinese cyclist got to her feet before being told by officials to get back up and begin the race again as Petricola, metres away, looked on in horror.

Li Xiaohui competes in the C4-5 500m time trial earlier in the Games.Credit: Getty Images

“It was unbelievable to watch. My first concern was for her health and safety,” Petricola said. “The fact that they then started screaming at her to get back on her bike because the timer had started seemed negligent.

“It was awful. She landed on her head. I spoke to her afterwards and she said her head was sore. She has got a big lump on her stump where her arm has tried to break the fall and her hip is pretty sore.

“The fact that she was forced onto her bike immediately to then just start riding, rather than the first instinct of most normal people, let alone in a para event, is to check health first [stuns me]. There doesn’t seem to be any real acknowledgement from the UCI that something pretty catastrophic happened.”

Emily Petricola at the start gate for the time trial event.Credit: Greg Smith/Paralympics Australia

After the Li incident caused havoc at the starting gate, Petricola and Kelly are adamant both she and the Chinese athlete’s starts should have been delayed.

There is usually a one-minute gap between riders in a time trial. Cyclists try to get in position as early as possible – with about 40 seconds before her start – to clip their shoes in and compose themselves. Petricola was distracted as confusion reigned for around 30 seconds.

“When someone crashes in front of you … the timing could have been delayed or there could have been a reset and just give Em the chance to refocus,” Kelly said. “It just seemed so unprofessional for people that are trained in their field.”

Officials rushed Petricola to the start line and accidentally sent her off early. Worried her bike had crossed the line, which would have started the official clock, Petricola tried to ask whether the error had begun the timing system. She unclipped, had to clip back in, and was rushed down the ramp. Petricola didn’t even have her helmet on properly.

“They were screaming at me to get on my bike … that really just became fully chaotic,” Petricola said. “People have panicked and done the wrong thing by both her and myself. The timing clock for me was reset about four times and I never got an official countdown.

“It was: ‘Go, go, go’, then, ‘No, no, no’. I had to reverse back up the ramp and then go again. There’ll always be a question in my mind around whether the timing was accurate and the fact that they won’t look at that is disappointing.

“[At the Olympics] they wouldn’t have set an athlete up to roll off the ramp on the edge who hurt themselves and then force them straight back onto the bike, let alone the whole debacle that happened with me starting twice.

“Seeing the Chinese rider in front of me all over the road, wondering if she’s got a concussion or a head injury … I was having to back off and I wasn’t confident to go around her [around corners]. All these things, when you lose by such a small margin … it’ll sit in my head forever.”

Petricola was in tears after the race, in which Australia’s Meg Lemon took silver. Australian officials wanted to know why Petricola’s start had not been delayed and demanded clarity on whether her time was accurate or based on the forced false start.

Emily Petricola on course during the C4-5 road race.Credit: Greg Smith/Paralympics Australia

Australia’s requests for a review were denied and team officials told there was nothing to discuss. Australia even asked to see video of Petricola’s start but were told by UCI officials to go and find the footage themselves.

“UCI communications was really chaotic, unprofessional and dismissive,” Kelly said. “[Her] time was adjusted, and then it wasn’t. We asked for an appeal. They just dismissed it and were rude in the way they handled it. This went on for several hours throughout that afternoon. It just should have been handled better.”

Petricola added: “Who knows what the timing actually was and if you trust the timing that actually occurred. They wouldn’t even look at it. I don’t mind losing bike races if I’m beaten, but it’s not knowing if I was really, truly beaten.

“I’ve sacrificed a huge amount in the last three years. I live in a separate state away from my partner to work with the team. To not get the opportunity to lay down the performance that I deserve to lay down is pretty upsetting.”

Paralympics Australia is now involved in the matter.

McLoughlin told this masthead: “We fully understand there can be mishaps and we certainly accept not everything will go right for an athlete during competition.

“However, what is very disappointing is the fact the officials did not pause to consider the impact this might have on Emily and take what we believe would have been the correct and sensible course of action to allow her to start after the last rider on the start list for her event. This would have given her five minutes to compose herself and refocus.

“What is also disappointing is the fact the UCI officials were initially reluctant to review what had happened and even when it was raised by us, they did not provide an acceptable explanation of what had happened or offer an apology to Emily.

“Emily is an elite athlete competing at a pinnacle event for her sport and I believe she has not been treated appropriately or with the respect she deserves in this situation.”

The UCI did not respond to requests for comment.

“I don’t expect that UCI are not an organisation that often apologise to anyone or really ever acknowledge much fault, and so I would expect nothing from them,” Petricola said.

“What I would hope is that even if they’re not prepared to publicly acknowledge anything that they can internally acknowledge that they’ve done something wrong here.

“I’ve never seen it in the Olympics. The eyes of the world is on them there and that’s how they view it. Whereas with us, maybe they think they can get away with it? There’s less money and funding in Paralympic sport than Olympic sport, so people aren’t going to make the same amount of noise about it.

“I don’t want to sound like a bitter loser, because it’s not about the losing, for me, like it’s about the conduct of the organisation. It’s just making sure that people understand that this is, it’s not an unusual occurrence for para athletes to be treated with so little respect. We deserve the same level of respect that they give to able-bodied athletes.”