Jess Varnish's sexism complaint against British Cycling's Shane Sutton upheld

Sutton resigned on April 27, 100 days prior to the Rio Olympics, over allegations of sexism levelled by Varnish and further claims he called members of the Paralympic team "gimps" and "wobblies".

The Australian rejected the specific allegations, but quit his role as technical director to avoid any distraction leading up to the Rio Olympics.

Varnish's complaint was investigated internally by British Cycling, with the findings reported to its board on Friday.

A British Cycling statement read: "Following an internal investigation, the British Cycling board has upheld an allegation made by Jess Varnish that former technical director Shane Sutton had used inappropriate and discriminatory language.

"The board wishes to put on record its sincere regret that this happened."

The independent review into the culture of British Cycling, commissioned by the national governing body and elite sport funding body UK Sport, is ongoing.

The internal investigation will be shared with the independent review.

British Cycling's statement added: "The findings of the investigation will help the development of the organisation alongside the independent review into the culture of the world class programme, jointly commissioned by British Cycling and UK Sport, and led by Annamarie Phelps.

"The full text of the board's report has been made available to the independent review. No further comment will be made until that review has reported its findings."