(London) The winner of the 2012 Tour de France and three-time British Olympic champion, Bradley Wiggins, said he was the victim of mental manipulation at the age of 13 by a trainer for sexual purposes, in an interview with the magazine Men’s Healthexcerpts of which were published on Tuesday.
“I was manipulated by a coach when I was younger — I must have been around 13 — and I never fully accepted it…” he explained.
Having used the English term ” groomed “, which designates any psychological influence of an adult on a younger person, the magazine asked him if this manipulation was aimed at obtaining sexual acts, he replied: “Yes. It affected me as an adult…I buried it inside me”.
The cyclist explained his difficulty in revealing these facts of which he had been the victim by an unfavorable family context.
“My stepdad was pretty violent with me, he called me ‘faggot’ because I was wearing lycra or that sort of thing, so I really didn’t think I would confide,” he said.
“I was so lonely…I just wanted to escape this environment. I found myself so isolated. I was a bit of a weird teenager in so many ways and I think my determination on a bike came from those hardships,” he added.
Wiggins, 41, had spoken in the past about his depressive tendencies and difficult childhood.
He had reached the pinnacle of his career in 2012 when he won the Tour de France and, a few days later, gold in the time trial in road cycling at the London Olympics.
Wiggins said he has long tried to understand his relationship with his biological father, Australian cyclist Gary Wiggins, who died in 2008, who abandoned his family when he was very young.
“The first time I saw him I was 18,” he said.
“He was my hero. I wanted to prove things to him. He had been a good runner, but he could have been very good, it was a wasted talent. He was alcoholic, manic-depressive, quite violent and he took a lot of amphetamines and drugs (for doping) at the time,” Wiggins continued.
The British Cycling Federation has announced that it has contacted Wiggins to “provide (its) full support”.
“We encourage anyone who has ever experienced abuse or is concerned about someone else’s well-being […] to use the help offered both by our dedicated team at the British Cycling Federation and by the NSPCC helpline set up for this purpose “, she added.
