Canada soccer great Christine Sinclair said on Friday national team players were never shown drone footage during the more than two decades she was on the team, following a spying scandal that cast a shadow over the Canadians at the Paris Games.
New Zealand complained that Canada staff flew drones over their training sessions before their opening fixture at the Olympics, which the Canadians won 2-1.
The incident caused head coach Bev Priestman to be suspended by Canada Soccer, the sport's national governing body, and sent home from the Games.
"It's unfortunate that the players from our national team have had to play through condemnable actions by some of their staff as they attempt to defend our gold medal," Sinclair, soccer's all-time leading international scorer, wrote on Instagram.
"I want to be clear that having been a national team player for 23 years, we were never shown or discussed drone footage in team or individual meetings I've been present for."
Sinclair, part of the gold medal-winning team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, retired from international soccer last year after winning 331 caps and scoring 190 goals.
Former Canada women's team manager John Herdman also spoke on the issue Friday, saying that news of the team's use of drones was "a surprise and a shock," and he is "highly confident" that such practices did not occur under his watch.
Herdman said he would cooperate with Canada Soccer's internal review of drone spying but declined to provide details of his experiences managing Canada's national teams from 2011 until his departure to coach Toronto FC in 2023.
"I'm highly confident that in my time as a head coach at an Olympic Games or World Cup, we've never been involved in any of those activities," Herdman said in a news conference.
"I've always gone into Olympic Games, World Cups, big events, with integrity in mind and the ability to compete at the highest level, following the rules and processes. So from my side, I'll help Canada Soccer where I can with that review."
Herdman managed Canada's women's team at the London Olympics in 2012 and the Rio games in 2016, as well as the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2015. He also headed the men's national team at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
Information from Reuters contributed to this report.