Olivia Podmore coronial inquiry: Forensic psychiatrist grilled on Rio Olympian's final message and accusations of ‘weighting' Cycling NZ issues

NZ Herald

22-04-2025

Podmore died in a suspected suicide the day after the Tokyo Olympics ended, August 9, 2021, after the track cyclist failed to qualify for that event following a Covid-19-interrupted selection process complicated by several controversies.
The lawyer representing HPSNZ, Stephanie Grieve KC, narrowed in on comments by Monasterio in the witness stand last November, and in his witness brief, in which she said he placed 'causality' on distressing incidents within Cycling NZ.
Grieve said Monasterio did not put equivalent causality on personal factors outside cycling when 'it was not possible to determine precisely' what led to her depressive episodes.
One of the 'traumatic' cycling events was in 2016, when Podmore unwittingly exposed an intimate relationship between a CNZ teammate and a coach, after she reported the athlete had not returned home to their hotel after a night out during a training camp in Bordeaux, six weeks out from the Rio Olympics.
Podmore was seen as a 'whistleblower' within Cycling NZ following this incident and allegedly subject to intense bullying and marginalisation within the organisation.
The other defining disappointment and source of mental distress was Podmore's exclusion from the Tokyo Olympic team.
Grieve began by scrutinising Monasterio's interpretation of Podmore's last social media post before her death in which she references the teen abortion 'so that I could follow my Olympic dream'.
Podmore referenced a 'cover up' from Cycling NZ and HPSNZ.
Grieve argues that Monasterio 'weighted' these cycling incidents over the then 24-year-old's past personal and family issues.
'You refer to the cycling issues, as impacting her, and of course those are clearly present in that post, no dispute about that, but she also refers to not meeting society's expectations, doesn't she, in terms of house, marriage, kids, because she'd given everything to her sport and termination of pregnancy,' Grieve said.
'Friends Thea Lyle and Eric Murray, talked about many things playing on her upbringing, the abortion and separation, the religious school, thinking she was supposed to be married and have children by the time she was 24.'
Monasterio said it was evident from that post she felt 'she had sacrificed so much for her sport and that weighed heavy on her'.
'Her words would suggest to me 'I've sacrificed everything to do well in the sport',' he said today.
'And this is a matter for the coroner and the inquiry to determine. I feel that I've been unfairly dealt with. So what I had a sense from that post is that she feels angry and disempowered and feels that she sacrificed so much from her perspective, she's been excluded unfairly.'
Monasterio said the extent to which 'not meeting society's expectations' and past relationships are 'interconnected' in Podmore's mental state 'could be subject to some debate'.
'The impression I get is of a young woman who had given so much of her energy and time to succeed at sport. And felt that to some extent she'd been treated unfairly. So she put all her eggs in one basket. And that basket didn't get her to the Olympics. It didn't get her to where she wanted to go. And it seems that that led to despair.'
Continuing on the same line of argument, Grieve highlighted that police in summarising witness interviews referred to a number of surrounding circumstances contributing to Podmore's mental deterioration, including the teenage pregnancy, abortion, parental separation, and the cycling high performance issues.
'I'm putting to you that you've... [singled] out the cycling issues but haven't weighted as much the personal issues,' Grieve said.
But Monasterio refused to concede to Grieve that it's very hard to rank the stresses and events that influenced Podmore's trials and mental distress.
'Not sure I agree with that… you can weigh to varying degrees the varying factors', Monasterio said.
'Look, all these factors are important. But the timing of events to my mind strongly support the proposition that the Bordeaux incident and the Heron inquiry [in 2018 into the Cycling NZ athlete coach relationship] is very significant,' Monasterio said.
'Then in evidence, I heard that the extent to which Olivia was allegedly bullied and excluded, and in my opinion for a young woman around the ages of 18 and 20 to meet that adversity, that's a very dominant feature. That's why I've weighted it heavily.'
Monasterio went on to highlight the contrast with Podmore's mental health in her initial years at the Cambridge High Performance base prior to 2016 were 'actually pretty good'.
'She did really well. She performed well. She went to the junior champs. She got on the podium and that is after her parents' separation and after the abortion. She was described as being gregarious and the kind of person that could light up a room.'
'Remarkably high' depression, anxiety scores
Just as he was in November 2024, Monasterio was also asked to give his perspective on the identification of severe to very severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in Podmore via structured psychological screening tools, called the DASS-21, in February 2020 - a time period in which she was attempting to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
Monasterio had been critical of the lack of action from health professionals treating Podmore in the 18 months before her death.
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'Do you think it's sufficient that she's screened this remarkably high result to simply ask 'are you OK?'... [given] this evaluative process you talk about?' Coroner Louella Dunn asked.
Monasterio said the 'severe nature of elevated scores' did strike him in his review.
'So there's a real disconnect between what Olivia is identifying, on the screening tool as severe distress, and the information that's being accessed in what seems to be a relatively informal setting,' Monasterio said.
'How you conduct an interview or an assessment is often key to what you find. Now where does this assessment occur? How does it occur? Is it fitted in between training sessions? Is it occurring before or after a sports performance? The scores are very high.'
Monasterio said he was not being critical of other clinicians, but that in his opinion, the severity of Podmore's scores would suggest that a formal assessment should have occurred in an environment that would facilitate a reasonable assessment to occur.
'Well, I can't say if I was a clinician because I'm a mental health expert, but if I was faced with this information, I would approach [the athlete]... It's tricky because you're in the middle of a competition... you're about to compete or you've just competed or you're trying to qualify for the Olympics and you've got these extreme scores for depression, anxiety and distress.'
But Monasterio said questions should have been asked in a more formalised setting after competition.
'In my opinion, that would be required. These are not mildly elevated scores. These are really, really high scores.'
'There is no dispute'
At the outset of the coronial inquest in November 2024 Coroner Dunn said 'there is no dispute' Podmore died by suicide.
'The focus of this inquest will be the mental health challenges Olivia faced and the care she received.'
Dunn said the issues the inquest was attempting to answer were: