According to Jobie Dajka’s dad, Stan Dajka, the Australian sports officials should feel guilty because of the death of his son. This was the statement issued by the bereaved father during his son’s eulogy last week.

Jobie Dajka, 27, an Australian professional cyclist who was a former world and commonwealth cyclist champion died inside his house in Adelaide on April 4. His body was recovered after 3 days. According to the police, the cause of his death was unknown although they believed it was not suspicious and was thought to be a suicide.

His father, Stan Dajka was very disappointed with what happened to his son. In a eulogy, where 500 mourners attended, he read: “Yes, I am bitter, my son. My heart will never forgive them for taking your life’s dream away from you. They tore out your heart, put you in a heap and closed the door. I hope the guilt torments them forever, as it has done to us.”

The family of Dajka decided not to allow Cycling Australia executives to attend the funeral of the cyclist. His funeral reflected the cyclist’s personality as loving, funny, angry and colourful. His father described Jobie as someone who had “the spirit, the determination and character” of a champion. A friend spoke the following words in the eulogy of his funeral: “You never fulfilled your lifelong dream of going to the Olympics. But we have always known, given the chance, you would have done everyone proud. My promise to you, my son, is that when the time is right, the world will be told the truth”, according to Australian press reports.

In 1999, he was awarded the AIS Junior Athlete of the Year. At the age of 21, Dajka was named the world Keirin Champion in 2002. He also won the gold medal in Commonwealth Games in the team’s sprint in the same year. His life started to fall apart when a big controversy hit him prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics Games. He was questioned about his doping due to the discovery of paraphernalia and syringes in his residence in Adelaide. He was accused to have lied during the inquiries about the Mark French doping incident. Due to this, he was removed from the competition weeks before it started. According to Dajka, he only injected vitamins but never used banned substances such as steroids. He appealed about his expulsion and suspension but he was not successful.

In June 2005, Dajka attacked Coach Martin Barras, Australia’s head track coach, while at an Adelaide velodrome. In 2006, he was convicted of that crime and was placed on a good behaviour bond. In the same year, he was given a three-year jail sentence after being guilty of driving while he was suspended and nine other charged that included theft, breach of bail agreement and other traffic offenses. In a report, he admitted that the incident prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics led him into three years of addiction to alcohol and depression. Although his father knew about the bad times, he said that “the good times outweighed the bad a million-fold”.

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