Sunnyside Hardware Tool of the Week: Andre Aubut

It’s been a long time since we’ve awarded the Sunnyside Hardware Tool of the Week after the big fanfare that accompanied its introduction. But we’re really seeking truly worthy winners and don’t want to hand this thing out willy nilly.

Aubut with the unfortunate Jeanson.

Well, we’ve got an incredibly worthy winner this week – Andre Aubut, former Canadian cycling star Genevieve Jeanson’s coach, who on Wednesday was suspended for life from sport by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport for directly administering the banned blood booster EPO to his athlete and encouraging her to use it.

We can only hope that Aubut never coaches another athlete.

In baseball, they talk about a “five-tool player” – a compliment based on their multifold talents.

Aubut was at least a “six-tool coach” – and that’s meant in the worst way possible.

This is a guy who:

-- encouraged Jeanson as a 16-year-old to use banned drugs

-- was seen being verbally abusive to his athlete

-- seemed to be trying to make up for his own undistinguished athletic career

-- was consistently confrontational with other coaches, officials, the media (this correspondent included)

-- spit at another cyclist who’d been critical of him and Jeanson during a race

-- generally brought sport into disrepute in a number of ways

Good riddance, Andre Aubut. You’re the Sunnyside Hardware Tool of the Week – definitely in the running for Tool of the Year, too!