Bullying claims evidence a need for urgent change within the Australian Olympic Committee, presidency candidate Danni Roche says.
Roche says allegations of widespread AOC workplace bullying demand a "transparent" investigation.
"The need for change is now clear," Roche told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
"It needs to change and needs to change now.
"Allegations of bullying and intimidation are of a very serious nature.
"Bullying and intimidation have no place in any workplace let alone one that is responsible for promoting and upholding the spirit of the Olympic movement."
AOC media director Mike Tancred stood down on Wednesday pending the results of a bullying complaint against him by former AOC chief executive Fiona de Jong.
Tancred's move came hours before an AOC executive meeting referred the bullying claims to an independent committee for a ruling.
The AOC executive also announced it would trigger an independent investigation into its workplace practices.
"The AOC has commissioned a review into specific allegations made by its media director, an internal investigation into workplace culture," Roche said.
"I believe both matters need to be investigated independently and transparently,."
Olympic hockey gold medallist Roche is bidding to oust AOC president John Coates in the first challenge to his position since he took the role in 1990.
The AOC will vote on the presidency on May 6.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was sure those voting would "come to a wise decision".
"That is an election contest in which the government is not a participant and we shouldn't be commentators either," he told reporters on Thursday.
The comments come after de Jong, who quit last December, outlined a dozen cases of alleged workplace harassment within the AOC since 2004.
The AOC said incoming chief executive Matt Carroll would lead the investigation into workplace practices.
But de Jong said that put Carroll, her replacement, in a difficult position.
"I would question the ability of any CEO to be truly independent and impartial in circumstances that the CEO was to become aware of an allegation against an individual to whom he or she reports," she told the ABC on Thursday.
"That is, any other members of the board or indeed a president. Why can't it just be a fully independent commission as has been the case established to hear my complaint?"
De Jong also queried why the AOC had suddenly acted on her complaint against Tancred.
"What the AOC hasn't been able to do for four months, they've now miraculously been able to achieve in four days since my complaint became public," de Jong said.
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