B12 O THEGLOBEANDMAIL| FRIDAY,MARCH6,2020
The UCI said in a statement it had
been informed by the Ethics Com-
mission of the opening of a formal
procedure. “The latter, led direct-
ly by the Commission, is under
way,” the UCI said.
Cycling Canada’s high-per-
formance director Kris Westwood
said in an e-mail that it’s commit-
ted to the well-being of athletes
and the principles of Safe Sport
particularly around sexual as-
sault.
“Unfortunately, athletes often
find themselves in team environ-
ments that are outside Cycling
Canada’s jurisdiction, and some-
times this environment can be
unsafe, as we’ve seen with the al-
legations brought forward by
Maggie Coles-Lyster, who was a
minor at the time of the alleged
assault,” Westwood said. “We have
offered Maggie our support, and
we are glad to see the UCI’s ethics
commission is investigating.”
Coles-Lyster’s allegations are
the latest in a list of several high-
profile sexual-assault and harass-
ment stories in Canadian sport.
Canada’s track and field commu-
nity was rocked recently by allega-
tions against former national dis-
tance coach Dave Scott-Thomas.
Former middle-distance runner
Megan Brown came forward in a
Globe and Mail story recently al-
leging that Scott-Thomas, a for-
mer University of Guelph coach,
groomed her for a sexual relation-
ship when she was 17.
The allegations against Scott-
Thomas haven’t been proved in
court.
Coles-Lyster said, with the cur-
rent climate in Canadian sport,
she felt it was important to speak
up.
“It’s empowering other women
to come forward and address
these topics, not leave them un-
der the rug,” she said. “Lots of peo-
ple have come up to me and are
shocked that this has happened.
So it could be because cycling is
still considered such a male-dom-
inated sport or who knows, but
for whatever reason people seem
surprised that this happened.
“This has been really empower-
ing to see the conversations this
has opened up and the other
women I’ve talked to about this
who have had similar experienc-
es, and just talking it through and
what the steps should be. There’s
a bunch of other athletes who
have come forward recently, and I
have considered reaching out to
them. I think the strength of
women banding together
through issues like this is really
important.”
Coles-Lyster said policies with-
in professional teams and nation-
al sport organizations need to beconsiderably stronger and more
accessible. She pointed out that
Canadian athletes must complete
an annual anti-doping seminar,
but there isn’t similar informa-
tion about safe sport.
“What needs to be implement-
ed, probably not even within just
sport, but everybody ... boys and
girls need to have education on
what sexual harassment looks
like, so this all starts before any-
body becomes a victim,” she said.
“They need to know what it looks
like, where to go if it happens.
There’s still a lot of stigma, so peo-
ple don’t talk about it enough.”
It was more than a year before
Coles-Lyster finally felt comfort-
able opening about the alleged
abuse, and reached out to a psy-
chologist among others.
“I really had pushed it under
the rug, and just tried to focus on
racing and I was still going back to
Belgium to race and just wanted
to focus on that and doing well,
because so much of doing well in
the sport and succeeding as a cy-
clist seems to be how well you can
do in Europe. So that kind of was
my focus,” she said.
Coles-Lyster, who no longer
competes for Doltcini-Van Eyck
Sport, will race in the Manchester
Six Day Series track race begin-
ning March 13.THECANADIANPRESSCycling:Sport’sCanadianbodysaysitiscommittedtoathletes’well-being
FROMB11MaggieColes-Lysterwinssilverinwomen’smadisonintrackcyclingat
the2019PanAmericanGamesinLima.Shesayssafe-sportpoliciesneed
tobestrongerandmoreaccessible.DAVEHOLLAND/THECANADIANPRESSNo surprise teams this time
around at the Tim Hortons Brier.
And with a field this strong,
there’s little room for mistakes
now too.
The best Canadian men’s curl-
ing teams – No. 1 through No. 8
in the domestic rankings, in fact
- started battling in the cham-
pionship round Thursday after
making the eight-team cut.
Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher
picked up where he left off after
going unbeaten in the prelimina-
ry round. He defeated Saskatche-
wan’s Matt Dunstone 9-5 to im-
prove to 8-0.
“A little bit of good luck and a
lot of great curling,” Alberta
third Darren Moulding said of his
team’s record. “You have to have
a little bit of everything to go un-
defeated in a field like this.
“We still have three games left
in the round-robin here and
we’re looking to keep adding
wins to the tally.”
Another draw was scheduled
for Thursday night at the Leon’s
Centre. The championship
round continues through Friday
evening with the top four teams
moving on to the Page playoffs.
Brad Gushue of Newfoun-
dland and Labrador (7-1) moved
into second place with a 7-4 win
over Team Canada’s Kevin Koe.
“For the start of the cham-
pionship pool, we knew we had
to just elevate our game slightly
as a team,” said Newfoundland
and Labrador second Brett Gal-
lant. “They have the Maple Leaf
for a reason. They’re a good team
and you know they’re going to
play well at the Brier every year.
“It was important for us to
play well and I think we did.”
Saskatchewan and Team Wild
Card’s Mike McEwen were next
at 6-2. McEwen dropped a 6-4 de-
cision to Northern Ontario’s
Brad Jacobs.
Ontario’s John Epping, mean-while, beat Manitoba’s Jason
Gunnlaugson 9-5 in the other af-
ternoon game. Both teams were
in a four-way tie at 5-3 with Koe
and Jacobs.
Ontario won its first three
games of this competition before
dropping three straight. A night
earlier, Epping was pushed to his
last shot of the preliminary
round before claiming the last
berth.“We almost fell off the roller-
coaster a few times but I think
we’ve lost our safety belts,” Onta-
rio lead Brent Laing said. “We’re
just holding on for dear life now
and it’s nice to get another win
now to start the championship
round.”
In the Page playoffs, the win-
ner of Saturday’s 1-2 game will
advance directly to the final Sun-
day night.The 1-2 loser will fall into the
semi-final against the winner of
Saturday’s 3-4 playoff game. The
semi-final winner will advance
to the final.
The Brier champion will rep-
resent Canada at the March 28-
April 5 world men’s curling
championship in Glasgow, Scot-
land.THE CANADIAN PRESSAlbertabeatsSaskatchewanatBrier
Alberta’sBrendanBottchercallsthesweepashisteamfacesSaskatchewanattheBrierinKingstonThursday.SEANKILPATRICK/THECANADIANPRESSBottcherkicksoff
championshipround
withavictoryafter
goingunbeatenin
preliminaries
GREGORYSTRONG INGSTON
| REPORTONBUSINESSA
lena Sharp wasn’t expecting an
extra month of time off – but
she’s glad to have it.
Sharp flew home from the
ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open on
Feb. 16 after the LPGA Tour announced
the cancellation of the Honda LPGA Thai-
land and the HSBC Women’s World
Championship in Singapore. Those
events, along with the Blue Bay LPGA on
China’s Hainan Island that was scheduled
for this week, were all cancelled over fears
of spreading the new coronavirus.
That means that when the Volvik Foun-
ders Cup kicks off on March 19 in Phoenix
near Sharp’s home, the Hamilton native
and the rest of the field will have had four
weeks off.
It turned out that Sharp’s trip home
was timely, as she and her partner contin-
ued to mourn a death in the family and
one of their dogs needed emergency sur-
gery.
“It’s a long break, but it’s gone by kind
of fast because I’ve been a little bit occu-
pied with things. ... It’s been nice to be
home, honestly,” said Sharp, who turns 39
Sunday. “I’d love to be playing golf, but
it’s kind of worked out to be able to be
home to take care of our dog and then get
some rest because the off-season was so
short, so it might have been a blessing in
disguise a little bit.”
After taking just a few
weeks off following the 2019
season, Sharp played in
three tournaments to kick
off the new year. She missed
the cut at the Gainbridge
LPGA at Boca Raton, Fla., in
January, tied for ninth at the
ISPS Handa Vic Open in
early February, then missed
the cut at the Women’s Aus-
tralian Open.
Once Sharp had settled
back home in Arizona, she
started focusing on her golf
again and making the most
of the surprise down time.
That meant regular rounds
at Seville Golf and Country Club, her
home course, consulting with coach Brett
Saunders, and competing in a Cactus Tour
event, a local professional women’s cir-
cuit.
“Even with all this time off I’ve been upon the course, like three hours a day, not
five or six,” said Sharp, who prefers in-
tense, high-quality practices over long
meandering sessions.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ve ... done what I
need to do, I don’t need to be grinding
super hard right now. I still
have two weeks. I’ve got to
pace myself.’ ”
One benefit of the time
back in North America has
been that Sharp got to work
in an impromptu visit to
Saunders, who is based at
Morgan Creek Golf Course
in Surrey, B.C.
“All athletes are very
competitive, they want to
get at it as scheduled but in
Alena’s case I think it’s real-
ly helped,” Saunders said.
“She had a long season and
she played well and she
played a few extra events
last year that and off the course she had a
few personal issues so she didn’t really
have an off-season. So this little break has
helped.”THE CANADIAN PRESSCanada’sSharpgetsextratimeoff
withLPGAeventscancelledovercoronavirus
JOHNCHIDLEY-HILL
I’dlovetobeplaying
golf,butit’skindof
workedouttobe
abletobehometo
takecareofourdog
andthengetsome
restbecausethe
off-seasonwasso
short.ALENASHARP
GOLFERRory McIlroy was under water
early, but sitting high and dry by
the end of his opening round
atop the leaderboard at the
Arnold Palmer Invitational in
Orlando, Fla., on Thursday.
McIlroy, the 2018 champion,
made an inauspicious start
when he plunked his approach
shot into a lake at his second
hole at Bay Hill, but it was as if
he was merely giving the field a
headstart as he roared back with
five birdies and an eagle.
At six-under-par 66, the world
No. 1 Northern Irishman headed
American Talor Gooch by one
stroke with half the field back in
the clubhouse.
Brooks Koepka, who McIlroy
recently displaced at the top of
the rankings, had a less pleasing
morning, bogeying his final two
holes for an even-par 72.
But Koepka, still trying to find
form on his return from a knee
injury, fared considerably better
than Adam Scott.
The Australian followed
McIlory into water at the par-
four 11th and dropped three
shots there en route to a 77.
REUTERSMCILROYTOPSTHE
LEADERBOARDATBAYHILL