AusCycling announced that it has appointed two independent experts to conduct a promised investigation into an "equipment accident" during the men's team pursuit at the Tokyo Olympics.

During qualifying for Team Pursuit, Alex Porter crashed after his handlebar appeared to break. The team was given the opportunity to restart, but they qualified fifth, losing their chance to compete for the gold and silver medals. However, the team fought hard and won the bronze medal.

The day after the Team Pursuit crash, it was confirmed that the parts were not manufactured by Argon 18, which supplies bikes to the Australian Cycling Team. Bastion Cycles later announced that its handlebar unit was the one used when Porter crashed and that it was working with the team to determine the cause of the failure.

Marne Fechner, CEO of Aus Cycling, said, "At the time we committed to a thorough, independent and transparent review.

Australian Cycling said Toni Campstone would lead the investigation and report back to Fechner.

Campstone has been involved in high performance in several sports, including Victoria and the Australian Institute of Sport. She was the high performance director for Hockey Australia, but resigned from that position in April after a recent review following allegations about the organization's culture and bullying. John Baker, a mechanical and aeronautical engineer who specializes in finding and investigating defects, was appointed investigator.

Fechner said, "Toni and John are leaders in their respective fields and have the blessing of the Aust Cycling Board and leadership to find out exactly what happened and what needs to be done to prevent a recurrence."

Australian Cycling said in a statement that the mandate of the investigation is designed to develop specific recommendations to reduce the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future.

"The investigation will be multi-faceted and both Campton and Baker will be provided with the access and resources necessary to ensure that all factors are clarified and investigated," Aust Cycling said in its statement.

The organization added that the timeline will be flexible, but that the findings and recommendations will be released by the end of the year.

This is not the first time Australia's medal chances have been compromised by equipment issues at the Olympics; in 2016, Rohan Dennis was forced to replace his bike during the time trial due to a broken aerobar. While the medal count at the Rio Olympics did not meet expectations, the silver and bronze medals in the track events led to a program review and the appointment of a new performance director, Simon Jones, who will try to achieve better results in Tokyo. Rohan Dennis took bronze in the elite time trial, and Logan Martin won gold in BMX freestyle.

Along with the equipment search, AusCycling is now again looking for a new performance director after Jones announced in July that he would be leaving after the Olympics.