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Former world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis has pleaded guilty over a car incident in Australia which killed his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins.<\/p>\n
Hoskins died in hospital on 30 December 2023, after being struck by a vehicle being driven by Dennis outside their home in Adelaide.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old was initially charged with dangerous driving causing death and driving without due care, but on Tuesday he admitted a lesser charge – one aggravated count of creating the likelihood of harm.<\/p>\n
Dennis – who has two children with Hoskins – will be sentenced at a later date.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Few details are known about the circumstances leading up to Hoskins’s death.<\/p>\n
However, Dennis’s guilty plea means he has admitted to driving a car when Hoskins was in close proximity, knowing that act was likely to cause harm or being recklessly indifferent to whether it would.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Hoskins was a world champion in the team pursuit in 2015 and a two-time Olympian, and her death triggered a wave of tributes from around the world.<\/p>\n
She and Dennis married in 2018.<\/p>\n
Dennis retired at the end of the 2023 season after a career in which he won stages at the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana.<\/p>\n
A multiple world champion on both road and track, he won road time trial bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, having won team pursuit silver at London 2012. He also won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n