Misuse of prescription drugs, getting drunk, breaching curfews, deceit and bullying highlighted a failure of culture and leadership in the Australian Olympic swimming team.
The long-awaited independent review commissioned by Swimming Australia in the wake of the disappointing 2012 London Games campaign has found there were enough such “toxic incidents” to call for a strong, collective leadership response from coaches, staff and the swimmers.
But no such collective action was forthcoming.
Instead, it says, standards, discipline and accountability for the swim team were too loose.
“Situations were left to bleed with not enough follow through for fear of disrupting preparation for competition,” the report says.
“Although few situations relating to London reported through this review were truly grave in nature, they compounded in significance as no one reigned in control.”
Swimmers interviewed for the report described the Games as the “Lonely Olympics” and the “Individual Olympics”.
There was not much connection between groups of athletes, or between athletes, staff and coaches other than what was engineered reactively.
The report outlines a campaign that got progressively worse as the predicted flow of gold medals failed to eventuate and there was no plan in place to deal with it.
“It seems that morale began to drop once the team started to lose in the first few days.
Athletes reported that there was either praise for a win, or silence.
“People felt the failure very keenly while they were still in the midst of performance. It was a contagious feeling that had a high impact on the mood,” it said.
“Some athletes let their emotion play out as bravado, withdrawal, disinterest and sulking.
“This tension was not nipped in the bud..indeed it was heightened with scuttlebutt and assumptions and diagnoses of doom from the media and the pool deck; things aren’t going well.”
The report said some older athletes saw the storm brewing and attempted to intervene, but without a supported forum these attempts were seen by others as harking back to good old days, or as being negative and criticising.
“Poor behaviour and disrespect within the team were not regulated or resisted strongly by other team members, and it was left unchecked or without consequence by staff and coaches on a number of occasions.
“Some individual incidents of unkindness, peer intimidation, hazing and just bad form as a team member that were escalated to personal coaches were not addressed and had no further consequence.”
Bigjohn
Guest
I have been on three Contiki tours, and I can tell you that we were more organised than the Australians at the Olympic Opening . And for those saying that what hapens at the Olympic Village stays there, all this drama with the mens relay happened at a hotel in Manchester. And if they want to play up, let them pay their own way , not expect us to finance their idiotic behaviour.
haymac
Guest
Lets nt forget that it is a priviledge to represent Australia one that many young swimmers would give anything for. The swimmers who took stilnox made prank calls harrassed other swimmers should be seen as toxic. Perhaps this is why they performed so badly. The coaching staff should have been on top of it but the bottom line is these arrogant few thought it was their right as demi gods to behave however they wanted too. Grow up have pride morality honesty traits they dont know the meaning of.
Rabbitz
Roar Guru
And we see the same overinflated sense of entitlement from footballers - it is just their management are more adept at protecting them and covering up a lot of indiscretions.
Neuen
Roar Rookie
I think your missing the point. The athletes are there in a village protected from media away from their parents and spouses and its one of the few occasions they can cut loose and they do. Nothing to do with amounts of condoms just when you let a caged animal run free he will run wild.
Australian Rules
Guest
That's an excellent point Peter. It was appalling what happened to Simon Cowley - the assault by D'Arcy literally ruined that young man's life. And Swimming Australia ended up in the corner of the guy who showed gold-winning potential. Zero credibility.
Australian Rules
Guest
Neuen The condom thing is a bust...and a continuing Olympic "gag" by the athletes in the village. Most of them are blown up and thrown around as balloons.
Dianne Andrews
Guest
Agree. They also seem to forget that the olympics only happen every 4 years, so blow your changes once and it could be goodbye to those gold medals.
peter
Guest
I would suggest that this has been brewing for some time as indicated by the D'Arcy incident. - and the lack of leadership was highlighted in a letter sent by his victim early last year. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/london-olympics/simon-cowley-writes-letter-of-protest-to-swimming-australia/story-fn9dheyx-1226268721279
Hughster
Guest
John Coates' robust response to the Crawford report said it all. Don't put money into participation, put it into the elite level and focus on the medals. Given everything that is happening in Australian sport at the moment it was an omenous statement............take away the glory and everything starts looking a little hollow. Is it any wonder that when the head of the AOC has this attitude ......... it flows thorugh the rest of the team. If you excuse the very lame swimming reference......which end of the fish stinks first!
Danno1
Guest
Maybe this is just a recognition of on-going problems in Swimming Australia, and sport in general. Elka Graham was hung out to dry when she spoke of performance enhancing drugs in the Aust Swim squad. No one wanted to believe her. It is not such a big leap to think that people who on condition of anonymity talk of misusing prescription drugs rather than hang the squad by saying they are abusing performance enhancing drugs. This is just another story, that added up with all the sport horror stories of the last month or so, shines a very unflattering light on sport and it's competitors. In no order of severity we have had This report The Pretorius murder The ACCC drugs and gambling in sport report The Interpol report of match fixing in soccer games throughout the world The Lance Armstrong fiasco The message I guess is enjoy the competition if you like, but don't believe a word anyone says, and under no circumstances admire or over praise an athlete. A total shame isn't it?
Pope Paul VII
Guest
oh ok, the aussie kiddies are identified all right but what they make of it is up to them. Indeed China for it's prestige put a lot into sport and the kids probably don't get a lot of say in it. Same happens here regarding chinese descended kids and academic coaching. Interestingly back in the old country the chinese have been investing in australian swimming coaches.
Voltara
Guest
Most of the members of our swimming team are kids. Most of them have spent their lives getting up at 3.30am and swimming laps in the cold and the rain. It's unfair and untrue to describe the culture of the team as "toxic" simply because they didn't win as many medals as some people hoped they would.We're always keen to claim their victories as our own. The moment they have a bad meet the whole lot of them are declared to be "toxic". Swimming is minor sport in most countries, however it has been targeted by many national teams because of the large number of medals available. 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500 x all the different strokes. Compare that with track and field. Perhaps the decline in our medal "haul" is due to increased competition?
jameswm
Guest
What about pro footballers - they're highly paid rather than having their trip paid for? They have grown up with entitlements, and are overseen by the same types of boofheads that they are. So Rabbitz - every kid on the team was like this, were they? there were none who were brought up well? Great generalisation, really accurate.
Neuen
Roar Rookie
Born I am referring to the development and the programmes that identify the kids. Because 16 years their bodies is growing and they can hit world record after world record at that age and for couple years after that. China has invested a lot in sport mainly to make a political statement to the west
Pope Paul VII
Guest
The aussie natural born swimmer is a myth On the bright side there are a lot of kids of chinese descent coming through though
Neuen
Roar Rookie
What happened to the 16 year old Aussies that were born with flippers like one use to see in the past? Answer to your second question The Chinese
Allanthus
Guest
Just to clarify Brendon, i don't personally have a position on blaming social media. I wasn't there and I don't know what happened. But i am interested in how it will be handled from here. Rightly or wrongly it's identified as a factor and so will need to be addressed in one way or another.
SkinnyKid
Roar Rookie
Very well said. How dare these people suggest its anyone or anything elses fault other than they lack of character. 'oh but the media said we were going bad so I went bad....and people were having party rather than watching my race...the coach didnt cuddle me when I did bad in the heat...' grow up you turds.
Neuen
Roar Rookie
This is what the US women's soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo wrote about the Olympics "With a once-in-a-lifetime experience, you want to build memories, whether it's sexual, partying or on the field. I've seen people having sex right out in the open. On the grass, between buildings, people are getting down and dirty." Imagine living in a town populated by young, toned, athletic mini-gods at the peak of their physical prime. Imagine that they've all dedicated years of their lives to disciplining their hot, fatless bodies for a shot to live in this little town for a few weeks. And there is about 10, 000 of them without their parents, spouses, preachers or whatever and its in some exotic place where you got lots of spare time on your hands. Once in a life time experience. Golden rule. What happens in the Olympic Village stays in the Olympic Village. Someone obviously broke the rule and the Aussies were caught but they all do it they all been doing it for ages and there is a reason why they are so excited jus to be there!
Brendon
Guest
When people raise the whole "social media" and i-phone issue do they think that Australian swimmers are the ONLY country where the swimmers use those things? Im pretty sure the American swimmers use social media too with Facebook and Twitter being American companies and all. The American swimmers put in a brilliant effort in London. Much better than 2004 and 2008 where Phelps carried the team. Before blaming "social media" (older?) people need to put their aside prejudices against twitter and facebook aside because they only make themselves look silly by blaming those for the failure of the Australian swim team in London. Do the Americans have a brainless cheer squad yelling and screaming like idiots? If they dont we dont need one either. These reports focus on some nostalgic past "glories" of the Australian swim and the culture of the team of those times except that even in 2004 and 2008 we had numerous chokes and disappointments. We won 7 gold in 2004 which is our best result for decades but Liesel Jones and Libby Trickett both choked. Only Thorpe and Hackett won gold for men.