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Champion cyclist pleads guilty to lesser charge after death of Olympian wife in Australia
Australian former world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis admitted Tuesday to a charge of creating a risk of harm in relation to the December 2023 road death of his Olympian wife Melissa Hoskins.
Dennis pleaded guilty in Adelaide Magistrates Court to an aggravated charge of creating likelihood of harm after a car he was driving hit her, according to Australian public broadcaster ABC and CBS News partner BBC News.
Prosecutors had agreed not to proceed with charges of “causing death by dangerous driving” and “driving without due care and endangering life”, the ABC said.
His lawyer told the court that Dennis, 34, did not intend to kill Hoskins.
Australian Olympic Committee
“There was no intention of Mr. Dennis to harm his wife and this charge does not charge him with responsibility for her death,” the retired athlete’s lawyer told the court, the BBC reported.
Hoskins, a retired track cyclist who represented Australia at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, died in an Adelaide hospital from serious injuries after the incident. At the 2016 Games, she was hospitalized after being involved in a high-speed crash at the Olympic Velodrome during training, ABC reported.
She rode in the Australian team that won the team pursuit event at the 2015 Track Cycling World Championships in France.
Dennis won the world time trials in 2018 and 2019, as well as a 2015 stage win in the Tour de France. He retired at the end of the 2023 season, the BBC reported.
Dennis – who has two children with Hoskins – will be sentenced at a later date, the BBC reported. They married in 2018.
Rui Vieira / AP
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