Oliva Podmore was a world cup winner, an Olympian and a loved member of the Cambridge sporting community - whose wonderful life has been cut short.
The 24-year-old’s sudden death last night has left friends such as former Olympic rower Eric Murray asking why.
“Mental health, I don’t know what it does to people,” Murray said.
“But it's obviously something inside that you don't see on the outside and we never saw anything on the outside.”
In a public social media post that has since been deleted, Podmore talked about the pressure of top level sport and particularly her relationship with Cycling New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand.
She said she hoped they never cover up another scandal, make a teenager lie or use blackmail and that she also hoped they will take suicidal athletes more seriously.
Podmore’s death comes after Michael Heron QC conducted a report into Cycling New Zealand in 2018 following 1 NEWS revelations about a dysfunctional culture.
Podmore was a key contributor to the investigation which found a lack of accountability and consequences for bad behaviour as well as sub-optimal leadership. It identified how a young athlete was bullied and pressured to lie in the past.
High Performance Sport NZ CEO Raelene Castle says things have improved since the report.
“Is it perfect at the moment? No, it's not. Have we got improvements to make? Absolutely,” Castle said this afternoon.
“The key thing is we learn from this situation and from Olivia and make sure her legacy is that we make improvements on the situation.”
Cambridge has been mourning the loss of one of their own today with the small town bringing rowers, cyclists and other top athletes together to train and live amongst each other and cheer each other on.
Just last week, 1 NEWS was in Cambridge with Podmore and others as they supported Kiwi athletes at this year’s Tokyo Olympics – a Games Podmore had qualified for, but she wasn't selected for the team.
The track cyclists who did compete in Tokyo arrived in Christchurch today.
Cycling NZ and HPSNZ said they are doing everything they can to support those athletes who now face two weeks in MIQ.
“We already had significant levels of support there and over the last 24 hours we've been working really hard to ensure there’s additional layers of support for anyone who needs it,” Castle said.
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