Andy Sparks, USA Cycling's head coach for its Olympic Games silver medalist women's team pursuit squad, has been dismissed from his role with the team by the federation after three riders filed a conduct complaint against him, Cyclingnews has learned.
Sparks is the second coach of a top national track team to lose his job over allegations of misconduct in the past year. British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton was suspended then resigned after being accused of sexism and discrimination in a case that sparked a wide-ranging independent investigation into the culture of the federation's high-performance programme.
None of the riders who filed the complaint against Sparks would agree to speak to Cyclingnews to elaborate on what led them to take this action. USA Cycling confirmed Sparks' dismissal in a statement that also did not expand on the accusations.
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"We can confirm that Andy Sparks was accused of actions that violated USA Cycling's SafeSport and employment policies," the statement read. "USA Cycling will not accept misconduct of any kind, and as per our SafeSport policies a full independent investigation was conducted.
"Based on our learnings from the investigation and subsequent discussions with Andy Sparks, USA Cycling has determined it is no longer in the best interest of USA Cycling for him to continue in our program. Because this case encompasses employment issues, USA Cycling will adhere to its longstanding policy of not providing any additional details or otherwise commenting on this confidential matter."
Sparks was head track coach for the Beijing Olympics, and returned in 2014 to help bolster the women's team pursuit program, which had fallen from second best to Great Britain in 2012 to fifth in the World Championships in 2014, almost 10 seconds in arrears of the British team.
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