Two Olympic coaches attached to the Canadian women’s soccer team were dismissed before a ball was even kicked at this year’s event.
Assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi have both been asked to leave Paris on the back of a complaint from New Zealand’s Olympic Committee regarding a drone being flown over their training session on Monday.
The Canadian Olympic Committee revealed on Wednesday that they had discovered another incident involving a drone hovering above a New Zealand training session on July 19.
According to The Athletic, the aforementioned Olympic coaches have since been sent home, with head coach Bev Priestman choosing to remove herself from coaching Thursday’s match against said opponents.
The Actions Of Two Olympic Coaches Have Given Canada Extra Work To Do
One of the biggest cheating scandals leading up to this latest set of incidents involves Connor Stalions, a former analyst at Michigan who resigned after being accused of sign-stealing. He is the subject of an upcoming Netflix documentary in which he tells his side of the story.
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He might regret not using drones following this recent revelation.
Meanwhile, the Canadian soccer staff are to undergo mandatory ethics training following the actions of the Olympic coaches in question.
“On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand Football and to the players on Team Canada,” Priestman said, per The Athletic. “This does not represent the values that our team stands for.
“I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program. Accordingly, to emphasize our team’s commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld.”
Canada are the defending gold medalists in women’s Olympic soccer. They will play France and Colombia after facing the Ferns on Thursday.
