Olympic cycling star Sir Bradley Wiggins says he feels ‘liberated’ after revealing how he was sexually abused by coach between 13 and 16

• Wiggins was abused by a former cycling coach and ‘never fully accepted that’
• He first spoke out about the abuse in an interview with Men’s Health UK last year
• Since the revelation, he said: ‘I feel liberated…which is a lovely thing to feel’ 
• It comes as he fronts a new NSPCC campaign to help people detect child abuse

Olympic cycling star Sir Bradley Wiggins said he feels ‘liberated’ after revealing he was sexually abused by his coach between the ages of 13 and 16. 

While backing an NSPCC campaign to help identify child sexual abuse victims, the Tour de France winner spoke bravely about being groomed, getting over cycling and why he would not change his past. 

The five-time Olympic gold champion, 42, achieved his life’s ambition in 2012 by winning the Tour de France, becoming the first British rider to do so. 

However, alongside the pressure that followed to repeat his success – and an injury which dissipated his ambitions – Wiggins realised cycling had in fact acted as a form of escape after he was sexually abused by his coach as a teenager. 

Olympic cycling star Sir Bradley Wiggins said he feels ‘liberated’ after revealing he was sexually abused by his coach between 13 and 16

After Wiggins made the revelation he was groomed in an interview with Men’s Health columnist and former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell last year, a shift began to happen within him. 

Speaking to the Express, the athlete said: ‘I feel liberated…which is a lovely thing to feel.’

The father-of-three made the decision to talk more about his experience of grooming as he fronts a new NSPCC campaign to help people detect the signs of child abuse. 

‘Listen Up, Speak Up’ urges adults to complete a 10-minute online tutorial to help them understand how and when to sound the alarm if they believe a child is facing harm. 

It comes as the charity reported a 14 per cent increase in calls to its helpline by adults about sexual abuse concerns.

Wiggins spent much of his life trying to understand his relationship with his father, Australian cyclist Gary Wiggins, who walked out on the family when Bradley was young and who died in 2008 after a fight

‘If someone had told me after I stopped riding that within a few years time this is what you would be doing rather than game shows and TV, I wouldn’t have believed them,’ Wiggins revealed. 

‘It’s funny how things pan out and a lot of it is to do with where you’re at in your life. This is the most rewarding thing I’ve done because it’s such a humbling subject for me and for many people – and a tragedy as well.’

Speaking about whether he has undergone therapy to help his trauma, Wiggins said: ‘No, I’m my own therapist, no-one knows what goes on inside my head. 

‘I’m not quite there yet – I’d be open to it, very much so.’

The exact details of what Wiggins endured remain unclear because, like many victims of trauma, the star ‘locked it out of his memory’.   

‘It’s to do with recall,’ he said. ‘It’s coming out slowly. I can’t even say how many times it happened to me. I can only remember parts of it.’

A photo of a young Bradley Wiggins. Taken from Wiggins autobiography ‘ Bradley Wiggins – in pursuit of glory’

Wiggins was shocked last year when he realised that one of his ex-trainers, Sean Bannister, told a newspaper Wiggins had ‘always had misgivings’ about another trainer.

Until that point, Wiggins said he had no clear memory of having asked an adult for help. 

‘That was harder to take than coming out about it [the abuse],’ he said, ‘that I had tried to tell someone. I didn’t know I had.’

The abuse began after Wiggins discovered cycling aged 12. He had witnessed Chris Boardman win the individual gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics on TV and was inspired to follow in his footsteps. 

Sir Bradley Wiggins (left) with son Ben Wiggins during day one of the HSBC UK National Track Championships at the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome, Newport

His absent father throughout childhood was the six-day and seven-day racer Gary Wiggins, who died of head injuries suspected to be violently inflicted after leaving a party in his native Australia in 2008.

First revealing his abuse to the world, Wiggins told Men’s Health UK magazine: ‘I was groomed by a coach when I was younger – I was about 13 – and I never fully accepted that.’

The NSPCC

The NSPCC is the leading children’s charity fighting to end child abuse in the UK.

If adults are worried about children they can get advice from NSPCC practitioners on 0808 800 5000 or via [email protected]

Asked if he was groomed sexually, Wiggins added: ‘Yes. It all impacted me as an adult…I buried it. My stepfather was quite violent to me, he used to call me a f****t for wearing Lycra and stuff, so I didn’t think I could tell him.

‘I was such a loner…I just wanted to get out of the environment. I became so insular. I was quite a strange teenager in many ways and I think the drive on the bike stemmed from adversity.’

In his 2008 autobiography, In Pursuit of Glory, Wiggins wrote about how his mother Linda’s new partner Brendan became his ‘quasi-stepfather’ when he was a teenager and was ‘totally supportive’. 

Wiggins previously spoke about suffering from depression and his difficult childhood.

He added that he spent much of his life trying to understand his relationship with his father, who walked out on the family when Wiggins was young.   

However, the athlete believes he would not have achieved the remarkable success he has if he had enjoyed a happy, stable upbringing.

‘I wouldn’t change a thing,’  he said. ‘What’s important if these things happen to you is what you do next. And as much of a legacy that I left in cycling, what I do now for the next 20 years is equally as important.’ 

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