I am sick to death of hearing about how it is all the swimmers’ fault that the culture of swimming in Australia is at rock bottom.
It is easy to make swimmers the scapegoats. It is easy to point to the members of the Mens 4×100 freestyle team.
These are fully grown adults that must take responsibility for their actions, actions that have been well documented in the media since the Olympic Games last year. And, there were probably other cases of bad behaviour committed by other swim team members.
No doubt these swimmers will be held accountable for their actions. But the guilty go far beyond the pawns that are being lined up and publicly executed.
Many have written that this type of behaviour would never have occurred under previous head coaches Don Talbot or Alan Thompson. Well there probably was a very good reason for that.
There were appropriate governance structures in place at that time.
Opportunities for bad behaviour were almost non existent and consequences for breaches were no doubt well understood.
So before Swimming Australia Limited (SAL) parade swimmers in absolution like Pontius Pilate, they need to reflect on what was their share of the blame for the swimmers’ poor behaviour was.
Under the previous CEO of SAL Kevin Neil, effective governance collapsed. Information was no longer shared and decisions made by a man who confessed at knowing nothing about swimming when he was appointed to the role of CEO.
How he was ever appointed and how much it cost to get rid of him is the topic of another story.
Transparency disappeared, communication with the Swimmers Association (ASA) and the Pals of our Swimmers (POOS) ceased. The best act that Kevin Neil performed was to accept responsibility for the debacle that SAL faces and fall on his sword.
So how many others need to follow that example to give SAL a chance at a clean sweep.
Swimmers poor behaviour is not the problem. Not many are listening so it is worth repeating, Swimmers’ poor behaviour is not the problem.
It is a manifestation of the environment created by poor governance. Yet we seem to focus more on swimmers’ poor behaviour than the root cause of the problem.
A cursory glance at recommendations of the two reviews released this week will attest to the identity of the problem – Governance
The media have an insatiable appetite for the sensational. They all search relentlessly for the “scoop” of the bad behaviour story.
Every interviewer I have listened to on TV and radio asks “that” question of the swimmer hoping they will oblige or trip up. And it mostly focuses on alleged banned prescription drug taking, bullying, alcohol and poor team behaviour etc.
So the public are fed a complete diet of negativism that the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that swimming in Australia is completely out of control.
The reality is far less sensational. Of the over 40 swimmers on the Australian Olympic Team, only a handful of swimmers misbehaved and there were many displays of good sportsmanship and camaraderie within the team.
The main story is that SAL needs to get its house in order and now have a clear road map in the form of recommendations of two reports to assist them. There are many people watching how SAL will conduct itself in the future.
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