I was abused by a coach at 13 – I’ve buried it & fought depression for years, says Sir Bradley Wiggins
AT 12 years old, Sir Bradley Wiggins told a teacher he would be an Olympic champion — and he went on to bag eight medals in four consecutive Games, as well as winning the Tour de France.
But success came at a high price — and the legendary cyclist has now revealed that he was abused by a coach as a teen.
“I was groomed when I was younger — I was about 13 — and I never fully accepted that,” he told Men’s Health UK mag.
“It all impacted me as an adult . . . I buried it. My stepfather was quite violent to me — he used to call me a f****t for wearing Lycra and stuff, so I didn’t think I could tell him.
“I was such a loner. I just wanted to get out of the environment. I became so insular.
“I was quite a strange teenager in many ways and I think the drive on the bike stemmed from adversity.”
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Sir Bradley, 41, made the shocking allegations as part of the magazine’s Talking Heads series, adding that he had been plagued with depression throughout his career, which he manages through regular exercises.
“I have to have routine,” he said. “Training every day, it’s important. Not drinking too much.
“With my depression, if I’m not looking after myself it manifests more like a mania. I try to be funnier and end up being shocking and contentious.”
‘Dad was a wasted talent’
As well as dealing with the memory of being abused, Bradley’s mental health struggles stem from a series of traumas, including living with his allegedly violent stepdad and the brutal death of his biological father, Australian cycling champion Gary Wiggins, in 2008.
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Born in Belgium, mum Linda moved him back to London when he was two after Gary left the family — and the split had a lasting impact.
Gary — an alcoholic and drug user who smuggled amphetamines in Bradley’s nappy — went back to Australia and didn’t see his son for 16 years.
“He abandoned us,” Sir Bradley said in 2015. “It will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
He said having his own kids Ben, 15, and Isabella, 13, drove home the pain of being rejected by his dad.
Bradley added: “It dawned when I had my own, not only ‘how could you leave and not have any contact or wonder at some stage what he’s up to?’ but for my mother as well, just leaving without any word, or money.”
The pair were reconciled when Bradley was 18 and training in Australia, but Gary was in the grip of addiction and the relationship was fractured.
“He was living in a caravan park and didn’t have a lot to his name,” Bradley said.
“He was banned from driving. Every now and again he’d just go off on one and drink himself into a stupor.”
Tragically, in 2008, 55-year-old Gary was found unconscious next to a road in New South Wales and died soon afterwards.
He had sustained fatal head injuries during a fight at a party, where he had been thrown to the ground several times before being chucked out — and Australian police told Bradley he had been murdered.
It dawned when I had my own, not only ‘how could you leave and not have any contact or wonder at some stage what he’s up to?’ but for my mother as well, just leaving without any word, or money.
An inquest determined the cause of death as a heavy blow to the back of the head, but recorded an open verdict due to a lack of evidence.
Despite the problematic past with his dad, who had a reputation for supplying amphetamines to other riders, Bradley hails him as “my hero” and the inspiration behind his cycling success.
But he says his mental health suffered over Gary’s death and the lack of closure a conviction over his death may have brought.
He told Men’s Health: “It was definitely to do with my dad, never getting answers when he was murdered.
“He left us when I was little, so I met him for the first time when I was 18. We rekindled some kind of relationship but then we didn’t speak for the last couple of years before he was murdered.
“He was my hero. I wanted to prove myself to him. He was a good cyclist — he could have been really good — but he was a wasted talent.
“He was an alcoholic, a manic depressive, quite violent and he took a lot of amphetamines and (sports) drugs back then.”
Sir Bradley, who dreamed of being a footballer before watching Chris Boardman cycle to Olympic victory in 1992, bought his first racing bike at 12 with £1,700 compensation money which he received after breaking his collarbone in a road crash.
He became a junior champion — but his love of cycling made him a target for bullies on the tough estate in Kilburn, North London, where he grew up.
He also alleges his stepdad, who split from Linda when Bradley was young, gave him regular beatings.
Bradley won his first Olympic medal, a bronze in the team pursuit event, in Sydney in 2000.
Four years later, in Athens, he took gold in the individual pursuit, silver in the team pursuit and a bronze in another discipline.
“He was my hero. I wanted to prove myself to him. He was a good cyclist — he could have been really good — but he was a wasted talent.
He won two golds in the individual and team pursuit at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing before switching from track to road.
Surprisingly, it was at the height of his success, in 2012, when he fell out of love with cycling.
Having become the first rider to win both the Tour de France and Olympic gold in the same year, just a week apart, he became a national hero and was also awarded BBC Sports Personality Of The Year.
The image of the victorious rider posing on a throne in front of Hampton Court Palace became one of the defining moments of the London Games, and he saw out the year with a knighthood in the New Year’s honours list.
But he was secretly struggling with life in the spotlight.
“After winning the Tour de France, then winning at the Olympics, life was never the same again,” he says.
‘I adopted a veil’
“I was thrust into this fame and adulation that came with the success. I’m an introverted, private person. I didn’t know who ‘me’ was, so I adopted a kind of veil — a sort of rock star veil.
“It wasn’t really me. It was probably the unhappiest period of my life. Everything I did was about winning for other people and the pressures that came with being the first British winner of the Tour. I really struggled with it.”
After winning the Tour de France, then winning at the Olympics, life was never the same again.
But worse was to come when allegations of doping were levelled against him in 2016, after Russian hackers published records revealing he had used a Therapeutic Use Exemption certificate (TUE) three times to take the banned drug triamcinolone, including before his historic 2012 Tour win.
A 14-month investigation into the claims, by UK Anti-Doping, was unable to find enough evidence of the contents of a Jiffy bag delivered to Sir Bradley’s Team Sky tour bus.
But a devastating report by a Parliamentary Digital Culture Media and Sport select committee in March 2018 found that Bradley and Team Sky were given triamcinolone to enhance his performance, not for medical reasons.
Both Sir Bradley and Team Sky continue to deny the claims and he later revealed the toll the scandal had on his then-wife Cath — who suffers from bipolar disorder and ended up in rehab — adding his own life was a “living hell.”
He told The Guardian in 2018: “You watch your family suffer, and it’s terrible.
“It nearly killed my wife. She ended up in rehab over it.
“Because she’s bipolar she has this fear of shame, people watching her all the time.
“You couldn’t say that at the time because you’ve asked for it, because you’ve won the Tour de France. No, I didn’t ask for that, actually. I only asked for a fair trial.”
He added: “What I should have done is murder someone, because then I’d have had proper rights. I’d have had more rights as a murderer.”
Sadly, the ordeal took its toll and the couple split two years later. Sir Bradley is now in a relationship with PR executive Laura Hartshorne.
The sports legend, who retired in 2016, has credited his mum Linda for his cycling success, saying she took on a £50,000 debt to support his passion.
“She did everything for me to pursue my dream,” he said. “I look after her but she’s not a woman who wants a great deal in return.”
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Tragically, the men in his life left a more toxic legacy.
- Bradley Wiggins was speaking in the May issue of Men’s Health, on sale from tomorrow.
