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Has Australia had enough of scandal? Swimming is the latest sport to cross the divide from the back to the front page of the paper and have the tag of ‘crisis’ tacked on to every report.
James Magnussen, Eamon Sullivan, Tommaso D’Orsogna, Cameron McEvoy, James Roberts and Matt Targett fronted a jam-packed news conference yesterday to profess their guilt, regret and remorse over a bonding session at a Manchester staging camp before the team moved into the Olympic village in London.
The general response on social media, usually the domain of outrage, was a long yawn.
The six relay swimmers had just come from watching Batman at the movies, and were sitting down to dinner. Five of the six swimmers took a Stilnox tablet, with Roberts deciding it wasn’t for him.
They proceeded to knock on a few doors, make some prank calls, and were tucked up in bed by 10:30pm.
The last part of the story has been disputed by teammates, with Emily Seebohm revealing that her phone went off up to an hour after that.
Either way, head coach Leigh Nugent was told of the childish behaviour, and decided not to take action against any of the swimmers. His judgement has now been seriously called into question.
Why is this a big issue?
Stilnox was banned by the Australian Olympic Committee prior to the games after Grant Hackett detailed how the powerful sleeping tablet had an adverse effect on him. While the relay swimmers aren’t guilty of taking a banned substance, they were in breach of an AOC rule that prohibited its use.
Their admission came hot on the heels of a review into the culture and leadership of the Olympic swimming team in London.
It didn’t make for pretty reading for those running the sport. The report called the culture “toxic” and painted a picture of a squad which, at times, resembled a schoolyard clamour for attention.
The world championships will be held in Barcelona in July and the team will come together once again. Unity will be difficult with swimmers contesting each other’s versions of events and the head coach’s leadership coming into question.
So, is it a crisis?
The start of the sporting year has been plagued by a vague Australian Crime Commission report into drugs in sport that left many fans annoyed. Tar met brush so often there should’ve been a worldwide shortage of both.
You could fill several notebooks with questions that remain unanswered, and a resolution won’t be forthcoming any time soon due to the nature of ASADA’s investigative process.
Now, we have some of Australia’s best swimmers confessing to a few childish games and a legal sleeping pill.
The low-key reaction to the swimmers’ public admission combined with the frustration surrounding the holes in the ACC report suggests that the average sports fan instantly develops a glazed look whenever the word ‘crisis’ is used.
Do you just not care anymore, or has the designation ‘crisis’ been set a lower benchmark than ever before?