Tribunal won’t put women’s pursuit track cycling team in world championship

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal won’t order Cycling Canada to enter a women’s pursuit team in October’s world track championship, but left the door open for a hearing to determine whether there’s been discrimination.

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

Five women took their case for world championship inclusion of a pursuit team to Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal on Aug. 18 after their appeal was denied by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada.

Fiona Majendie, Skyler Goudswaard, Jenna Nestman, Lily Plante and Justine Thomas alleged Cycling Canada discriminated against them on the basis of sex and asked for an expedited interim order requiring the organization to enter a women’s pursuit team in Shanghai. The deadline to enter is Monday.

The Tribunal said in its decision Friday that there wasn’t time for an expedited hearing and decision in a 34-day window.

It did, however, keep the discrimination question alive. The Tribunal agreed to expedite a case management conference call to determine whether a hearing should be held.

“Shanghai was always a race against the clock,” said Emir Crowne, who represented the women, in a statement Friday.

“The important thing is that the Human Rights Tribunal — to its credit — has moved quickly enough to keep the 2027 Olympic pathway open. That women in Canadian sport still have to fight this hard for equal opportunity in 2026 is shocking.”

The Tribunal directed the women and Cycling Canada to try mediation, but that was unsuccessful Sept. 10.

The SDRCC denied the women’s appeal in a decision released Aug. 10.

Arbitrator Carol Roberts said she was unable to find Cycling Canada’s decision unreasonable or inequitable. She wrote it was in line with the organization’s published criteria and objectives.

Cycling Canada denied sexual discrimination in its response to the Human Rights Tribunal. It said the women’s application should be dismissed “as an abuse of process” under the Human Rights Code because the SDRCC had already dealt with the issue.

“The SDRCC found that the decision was not discriminatory, nor was it unfairly based on any prescribed personal characteristics,” Cycling Canada’s chief executive officer Mathieu Boucher said in a previous statement.

Cycling Canada didn’t shut down the women’s team pursuit program, but shifted to a development model. It said the decision to enter men and not women in the world championship was based on performance analysis showing the men were closer to closing the gap on a top-six world ranking than the women, along with budget limitations.

Boucher said in May the door was open to pursuing qualification for the women for 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 athletes that month that L.A. was unlikely for the women’s pursuit team and that developing a team for 2032 was the objective.

A Cycling Canada spokesperson said in an email in May that the women’s pursuit team will compete in a Next Gen event in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, in January, in the Pan American Championships in February and in a World Cup in Milton, Ont., in April.

Women’s track cycling team pursuit has been a strong event for Canada historically, with an Olympic bronze medal in 2012, another bronze four years later in 2016 and fourth in 2021.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press