Former Australian world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of creating a risk of harm in connection with the road death of his Olympic wife Melissa Hoskins in December 2023.
Dennis pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Magistrates Court to a more serious charge of causing harm after the car he was driving crashed, according to Australian public broadcaster ABC and CBS News contributor 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
“Mr Dennis had no intention of harming his wife and this charge does not make him responsible for her death,” the retired athlete's lawyer told the court, the BBC said.
Hoskins, a retired track cyclist who represented Australia at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, died in hospital in Adelaide from serious injuries following the incident. At the 2016 Games, she went to the hospital after being involved in a high-speed accident 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 the 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 got married in 2018.
Rui Vieira / AP
