The mother of Olivia Podmore has been drawn into a 12-month battle to obtain the deceased Olympian’s medical records from High Performance Sport NZ, which has inflicted significant financial strain via legal fees, caused “more hurt and pain” and still has no clear end in sight.
Nienke Middleton [formerly Podmore] and her husband Chris have not been provided with what is believed to be hundreds of pages of medical documents accumulated from Olivia Podmore’s eight years training as a Cycling NZ athlete at High Performance Sport NZ’s [HPSNZ] Cambridge base.
The process of Nienke Middleton applying to get these records also included a three-month wait this year to prove to HPSNZ that she was the legal executor of her daughter’s estate.
“It was absolutely ridiculous. It was more distressing, more hurt, and just more pain to go through … there were just so many emails back and forth questioning it, wanting more proof, more everything,” Nienke Middleton told the Weekend Herald.
Podmore died on August 9, 2021, in a suspected suicide the day after the Tokyo Olympics ended - an event she had trained four years for but failed to qualify.
An investigation by the Herald subsequently revealed the 24-year-old had been forced to lie by Cycling NZ management about a relationship between an athlete and coach, and had been awarded an unprecedented sporting $20,000 grant for “welfare reasons”.
She was also revealed to have been dealing with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts in the year leading up to her death. In a social media post before her death, Podmore spoke of a "cover-up" at Cycling NZ and High Performance Sport NZ.
An independent inquiry into the culture at Cycling NZ following the Rio Olympian’s death was handed down on May 16. It found a litany of cultural and structural deficiencies in the sporting organisation. The inquiry co-chaired by Mike Heron KC and Massey Professor Sarah Leberman determined Cycling NZ “prioritises medals over wellbeing”.
Olivia Podmore died on August 9, 2021, in a suspected suicide the day after the Tokyo Olympics ended. Photo / Supplied
Over the course of the inquiry, Cycling NZ's chief executive and two head coaches all resigned.
Now five months on from that damning report, the Middletons still find themselves frustrated and unable to find any closure over Podmore’s death with so many questions about her mental state and medical treatment left unanswered.
"It just feels like you go one step forward and one step back, you know, as far as dealing with losing her. But I feel it's definitely a major blockage on stopping us from moving forward really," Nienke Middleton said.
While the Middletons say they initially personally requested Podmore’s medical records from HPSNZ in October, 2021, they eventually got lawyers involved in June after several earlier requests in early 2022.
"We are spending a lot of money trying our best to fight for Livi but we don't know how long we can keep it up competing with taxpayer-funded lawyers," Chris Middleton said.
"We know it could break us but we have no choice."
HPSNZ chief executive Raelene Castle told the Herald their sympathies were with the family for the drawn-out process, but they were bound by obligations to the coronial inquiry into Podmore’s death.
“We understand and appreciate that the delay in being unable to provide these records is frustrating and upsetting for the family, who are still grieving the loss of their daughter and, as always, our sympathies are with them,” Castle said.
“HPSNZ has an obligation to work within the requirements of the coronial process. Olivia’s medical records have been requested by the Coroner as part of the inquiry into her death. We have raised the family’s request for access to these records with the Coroner.
Podmore with Nienke and Chris Middleton. Photo / Supplied
Nienke Middleton with an image of her daughter Olivia. Photo / Supplied
“The Coroner has indicated that all information provided for the coronial inquiry will most likely be suppressed and we are waiting for a final decision on this. Once we know the details around suppression, we will provide the records to the Podmore family.”
The Herald attempted to get clarity from the Coroner over whether they had made such requests to withhold the release of Podmore's medical files.
However, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice could only confirm that the Podmore case is an open inquiry before the Coroner and they could not comment publicly on it.
But the Middletons are sceptical that coronial requests to HPSNZ are exclusively the cause of the delay - especially considering Podmore’s own personal doctor at Cambridge Medical Clinic handed on her medical files late last year without objection.
"I pretty much sent HPSNZ a similar email to the Cambridge Medical Centre," Nienke Middleton said.
"They basically after two really polite and nice emails said no problem at all, we will courier those down to you in hard copy and they were pretty much there the next day."
Following the Commonwealth Games, the Middletons were supplied with a separate clinical review into Podmore’s medical treatment at HPSNZ that made several broad findings on the quality of her care.
They have not revealed any of the contents of that suppressed clinical review document and say they would equally respect any suppression orders if they were supplied with the full package of all Podmore’s medical documents.
The Herald understands a further significant development in the investigation into Podmore’s death could also be looming as her coronial inquiry could be elevated to a coronial inquest before a court.
Podmore died on August 9, 2021, in a suspected suicide the day after the Tokyo Olympics ended. Photo / Supplied
If the Coroner needs to hear from witnesses in person, they will hold a hearing in court. This is called an inquest and could extend the determination of Podmore’s cause of death by 12-18 months.
However, the Middletons say they would welcome such an inquest in which witnesses were potentially forced to reveal the specific conditions Podmore experienced within the Cambridge high-performance base and Cycling NZ team that has been subject to two independent inquiries over the past five years.
"They purposely designed the Heron review and the clinical review to not be talking about Olivia. They purposely managed to circumvent the interesting stuff," Chris Middleton said.
The terms of reference for the 2022 Heron/Leberman inquiry into Cycling NZ were specifically to deal with the “environmental realities” of culture at the sporting body and did not delve directly into Podmore’s treatment there as an athlete.
“Everybody said, we can’t move forward until we’ve addressed all of this, and that’s the last thing anybody’s doing … Even within Cycling NZ nothing’s been shared out loud,” Chris Middleton said.
Nienke Middleton echoed her support for a coronial inquest into her daughter's death:
“Totally [behind that move]. They can’t really hide from anything then,” she said.
