Honestly, I don't think they have attempted to cover it up; they have covered it up. I think it's a crisis.
I was asked to become the CEO by the board at the time. I had no intention of ever working in sport. I did it in an interim position and was very fulfilled at the beginning, but I had unbelievably high pressure from Own the Podium to keep a certain staff member who was absolutely not following our rules. Had I not stuck to my guns, we would not have changed at all. I would have just stayed in the sport system, been the CEO, toed the line and been quiet. This happens every day, I think, but I pushed it and said, “No, we're not continuing with this when this culture is a problem.”
Own the Podium basically threatened me right after that with an intervention. It set up a high-performance management group and barred me from it, in my own organization, in exchange for funds. We would not have received the same funding. We were threatened with losing funding, which is a critical thing for our athletes. Our athletes get this funding and are finally able to perform on a world stage at the highest level.
There are two sets of funding in the national sport organizations. There is the reference level, which supports the activities of the national organization, promoting the sport in the country, doing the administration of it and all those things. There are the excellence funds as well. The reference level hasn't changed in 30 years. The excellence funds came along before Vancouver. I think they were of good intention, but they've gone way out of control.
Own the Podium wants to control everything, and it is a massive problem in sport right now.