Decision to replace Ecuador’s cycling champ at Paris Olympics draws anger

Richard Carapaz will not be at the Paris Olympics to defend his road cycling title.

Ecuador’s only representative at the Olympics in the road cycling race and individual time trial will be Jhonatan Narváez, the national cycling federation said in a statement on Monday.

Richard Carapaz pedals in the men’s individual time trial final at the Pan American Games in Isla de Maipo, Chile in 2023. Carapaz will not be at the Paris Olympics in 2024 to defend his road cycling gold medal.

Carapaz said on his social media he wished “the best of luck to Jhonatan,” and added he will keep reaching for new goals. The two cyclists had a tough battle for Ecuador’s spot in Paris.

The decision to replace Carapaz was met with disbelief and anger by members of the Ecuadorian Olympic team and cyclists. “This was a political decision based on his criticism of the cycling federation and the Olympic committee,” said cyclist Fabricio Milton. “He exposed the incompetence of the sporting authorities in Ecuador and he is being punished.”

Two unnamed Ecuador Olympic team members agreed with Milton but said they could not go public with their opinions until after the Olympics.

Carapaz was the first Ecuadorian to win a grand tour, the 2019 Giro d’Italia. He also made the podium at the Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta but hasn’t finished any grand tour since 2022.

This year, he won a stage and finished seventh in the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland in April.

The Olympic champion claimed in various interviews that the process to earn Ecuador’s only road cycling spot in Paris favored Narváez. The federation rejected the accusation.

Carapaz urged the country’s sports ministry to intervene in the decision but that hasn’t happened so far.

Narváez, winner of the road cycling race in the Pan American Games in Santiago last year, has yet to comment on the decision.