Olivia Podmore's mum has reflected on the sporting industry two years on from her daughter's death
Podmore, who represented New Zealand in cycling at the 2016 Rio Olympics, died on August 9, 2021.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, her mum Nienke Middleton said the past few days have been challenging.
"I had a big meltdown on Saturday but not too bad yesterday, I just sort of find keeping distracted is the best sort of way to keep yourself busy."
She said high performance athletes need to have an independent body outside of the organisation that they can talk to if they're struggling, and have peace of mind that anything they want to share is confidential.
"We knew she was down and we knew she certainly struggled with a few things but we absolutely had no clue at all that she was that far down."
Middleton said her daughter went through a lot and there was "a lot that went on in the sporting industry".
"Athletes are tough but they're certainly used to being put under pressure and I think she thought the whole time she could handle it but obviously yeah, some things went wrong and things happened."
Following Podmore's death, a review into Cycling New Zealand was launched.
The report found that the organisation "diminished the mana of athletes" and CNZ's umbrella organisation High Performance Sport New Zealand was told to “seriously examine gender biases within their organisations”.
At the time, Middleton said her and her family were critical of the review.
She said this morning, "It was basically just a review about the review they'd done in 2018 all to do with the Rio Olympics and what happened at the time.
"There's certainly a few things and there's a lot of athletes saying there are things that have changed and other people are saying there are things that've not changed at all, so yeah it's interesting how there's seems like a mix of things going on."
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