Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
bradley wiggins publicly revealed for the first time that he was were sexually abused as children almost accidentally during an interview with alistair campell men’s Health In 2022.
Wiggins had no plans to speak out about what Stan Knight, his cycling coach as a teenager, did to him at training camps. But when Campbell asked, “What else were you running from?” When Wiggins walked away from the Tour de France after winning the race in 2012, Wiggins responded: “A lot of things. When I was young – I was about 13 – I was groomed by a coach – and I never fully accepted it.”
Campbell was clearly unprepared for the answer, saying: “Blimey, we’re getting all this today,” and the interview soon turned to Eurosport commentary and a discussion of Wiggins’ opinion of Boris Johnson.
“He didn’t pressure me to talk in detail, but as soon as I did, it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Wiggins said. bbc radio 4 On Tuesday. “This unleashed a wave of press articles, particularly daily MailAnd in some of them there was a hint that I was lying – ‘What a bizarre statement, without adding any context’ – which I could probably see had some plausibility in it. But from that moment on, I felt like I had to look it up and understand its meaning.
“About a year and a half after that interview I did another interview Sunday Times Magazine And it inspired other people to come forward who were victims of this same gentleman, and it upset me even more because it was validation for me. I always thought I was alone.”
Wiggins exposed the abusive practices of Knight, who gave aggressive massages, touched his victims in the shower under the guise of teaching good hygiene, and shared beds with boys while living away in hostels. Wiggins’ account encouraged four other people, all over the age of 40, to come forward and reveal similar experiences under Knight’s care.
Wiggins explains in more detail in his new book, seriesIt is an account of how his troubled childhood haunted him throughout his career, despite the outward success of the Tour de France and Olympic glory. He writes about a hotel stay with Knight, who died in 2003, when Wiggins vomited during the night and woke up in the morning without his pajamas. “I know that somehow, whether through food or some other means, he drugged me,” he writes.
Wiggins’ book also details how he struggled with his relationship with his father, Gary, a cyclist, who left when Bradley was only 18 months old and did not have contact with his son for more than a decade. He recalls how his bullying stepfather filled the void in his life. Wiggins tried to reconcile with his father of 20 years, but was revealed to be a drug addict and later murdered after an attack in 2008.
it also opens jiffy-bag scandal In which a mysterious package was given to Team Sky during the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine. A parliamentary inquiry concluded that the team “crossed an ethical line” in exploiting the therapeutic-use exemption (TUE) that allowed riders to take the banned corticosteroid triamcinolone, which Wiggins had used before major races at the height of his career. Wiggins claims Team Sky, led by Sir Dave Brailsford, “threw me under a bus” during the results.
“I was put in a position where I had to prove a negative,” he told Radio 4.
In his book, Wiggins blamed the toughest challenges of his life – “Stan, my father, his murder, success, fame, packages, witch-hunts” for allowing himself to fall into it. cocaine addiction Who took his life after riding a bicycle. He admits to fussing over his Olympic gold medal and breaking his Sports Personality of the Year award in front of his children.
Wiggins says he lived behind the mask of “Viggo”, an extroverted character with sideburns and sunglasses who could do remarkable things on a bike, and who provided a blanket for the inner torment he felt.
But he blames himself for how his life turned out to be after cycling, telling Radio 4: “I’m responsible for my own life. So it’s not something I sit around blaming anyone for. I’m 45 years old, and the day I won the Tour de France I was 32, so I was a grown man. I think I should have taken more responsibility for myself and looking after myself, and someone And should not have been depended upon.”
He has been free from cocaine for over a year and said: “Why write this now? This was a chance, a year to become a better version of myself and clean up my act, to tell it all in my own words, in my own story, in detail, something I didn’t do initially when I came forward with that allegation. [of sexual abuse],