USA Cycling hiring for elite athletics, high performance programmes

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USA Cycling announced this week that it is looking for candidates to fill several positions in its athletics programmes, including the women's endurance track coaching job left vacant after Andy Sparks was let go. The federation is also looking to fill the role currently occupied by Jim Miller as Vice President of Athletics, as Miller becomes VP of High Performance.

The VP of Athletics will oversee financial and administrative management of USA Cycling's elite athlete programs, including athlete selection. Miller's position as coach of several athletes, including Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong, meant he had to sometimes recuse himself from the selection processes for road World Championships and Olympics. As VP of High Performance, he will be responsible for athlete development across all cycling disciplines.

"I am most passionate about working directly with coaches and athletes to help them perform to the best of their abilities," Miller said in a USA Cycling press release. "I'm thrilled my new role will allow me to put more time and energy into doing what I love most and where I believe I can have the most impact."

Whether Miller would still be involved in the selection process is still being examined, according to CEO Derek Bouchard-Hall.

"We are currently working with an external consultant, TSE, to review and refine our selection process so the role of Jim in our future selection process is still to be determined," Bouchard-Hall told Cyclingnews. "But Jim will not be responsible for running the selection process once the new VP of Athletics is on board - that will be a core responsibility of the new hire."

USA Cycling is also seeking a coach for its world champion women's endurance programme, left vacant after Andy Sparks, partner and coach to Sarah Hammer, was let go under the federation's employment policies. Several of the athletes in the programme had accused him of being emotionally abusive and raised the issue with the Safesport manager.

Additionally, there are open positions for Men's and Women's Performance Directors - new roles that "will focus on ensuring that the needs of America's top cyclists are fully met", and a Sports Technologist that will leverage "state of the art technology to improve athlete performance, particularly in BMX and track cycling".

"We have very ambitious goals for developing and supporting our nation's best cyclists and expanding our International success," Bouchard-Hall said in the press release. "We are recruiting the world's best and brightest leaders and specialists to key positions to build a high performance development environment for our outstanding American athletes."

The postings come at a time when multiple national federations are transitioning staff at the start of a new Olympic cycle. British Cycling and Cycling Australia are also replacing top members of their high performance teams.