In the run-up to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, USA Cycling has had to defend itself in three separate legal cases against its selection process, leading new CEO Derek Bouchard-Hall to set the goal of reviewing the selection procedures beginning the day after this year's Games.
The selection committee choose three riders to fill the team - only Megan Guarnier won an automatic bid with her bronze medal in the world championships. Kristin Armstrong and Evelyn Stevens were chosen to fill the time trial spots, and Carmen Small and Amber Neben, were not. Climber Mara Abbott completed the team.
Bouchard-Hall fought back against public perception of bias in the selection of two-time Olympic gold medalist Armstrong over Small, who dominated in the national championships on a similar course and in similar conditions. Small and Neben fought the selection in arbitration and lost.
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Jim Miller, USA Cycling's athletics director, also happens to be Armstrong's personal coach. Miller developed the selection criteria, assembled the selection committee, and came up with the method for aggregating rider data and presenting it to the committee. He declared the conflict of interest, and left it to the women's road coach, Jack Seehafer, to make the actual data and recommendations to the selection committee.
Bouchard-Hall said he was confident that there was no opportunity for bias to be introduced in the process, but wants to avoid having this sort of negative public perception in the future.
"We're certainly going to revisit that as part of the next process. When we have those conflicts of interest it certainly opens us up to accusations of bias and unfairness. Even if in reality we can separate ourselves from those, the perception is a real problem. We have a legacy of challenges that lead to that," Bouchard-Hall said.
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