When the euphoria that bombing Stilnox and Red Bull outweighs the euphoria of winning gold medals, it’s plain to the casual observer that deep-seeded problems exist in our national swimming team set up.
Accountability gets passed around like Michael Phelps’ bong. Reports are compiled, evaluated and excuses are conjured. If Libby Trickett could see it coming, why has she waited to talk on her concerns well after the fact?
Kenrick Monk is another swimmer who had noticed a change. Well, Kenrick — who is not known for an outward perception of common sense — speaking up six months after you see a problem and after it has been reported for a bit of television time, marks you as accountable as the swimmers involved at the London Olympics.
Vanity in swimming is learned from a young age. Swimmers prepare in an environment where everything is on show. It is an individual sport which requires a huge amount of discipline to succeed. Growing bodies are judged by peers. Coaches are forced to coddle the egos of precocious future stars.
Indeed, the official rooms at big event carnivals are an intense mix of mind games, emotions and talent ready to explode.
This brings us forward to our unique Swimming team who represented our country in the last Olympics.
A team which told the world via Twitter, Facebook and the regular mediums that they would be ear marked for greatness. A team who outwardly looked so relaxed and confident that Australia wouldn’t have seen this much gold since prospecting days of the 1850’s.
They told themselves this anyway. Their mothers and fathers had affectionately propped up their ego’s for so long, so it must of been true.
Individual coaches had gravitated toward their potential and told them of their greatness before they were proven. When, in fact, it was actually a team who preferred to be dreaming of the “Dream Team” rather than fixating on a goal of doing our nation proud.
The Australian public was outraged. Our heroes weren’t big noters. That was the other country.
Our hard earned, tax dollars were funding this precocious Generation Y flops. Most of us saw it coming before it started. The two reports released this week only reminded us that in the words of Generation Y – London was an “epic fail.”
Unfortunately the team culture is defined by the head coach. Leigh Nugent should be the first to take responsibility.
The head coach in any team environment sets the program. Picks his support staff. Instils the discipline. Nugent has chosen to take the eyes shut approach and claim ignorance. It’s the sign of a cowardly leader. Australia’s marquee Olympic sport deserves better.
It’s unfathomable, with all the resources at his disposal that a dedicated psychologist wasn’t on the bus. Reports that a psychologist was needed after such failures are partly true. This team obviously needed to be counselled before the races.
The self creation of expectation was a burden the new age social media spruikers obviously couldn’t handle.
Swimmers caught breaking the rules of their Olympic contracts should be immediately suspended.
The best way to deal with inflated egos is to pop them with a pin. Senior swimmers who have also spoken out after the fact should also be counselled at the very least as to why they felt they had to hide the information.
Surely their experience would of told them that speaking out was for the good of the team. It’s unbelievable that they felt intimidated to not ‘dob’ on a mate. They are merely exonerating themselves after the fact.
The Australian public is not that stupid. We can see through belated claims of innocence, just as we could see through the bold claims our athletes proclaimed ahead of our worst swimming Olympics in 20 years.
A couple of sooky prima donnas couldn’t handle their own hype. No amount of reporting or excuses needs to tell the Australian public they were simply under prepared and outdone by countries catching up.
No one put the smart phones in their hands and told them to tweet their profound thoughts. No one told them to pose for the next photo. Swimming Australia should have realised something was amiss four years ago when Nick D’Arcey’s fan club came out and supported him.
Reports do nothing but chew up taxpayer money. The Australian public is sick of unnecessary reporting used as an excuse for results. Results that are substandard because of the ever-growing vanity in our stars.
Leigh Nugent, although well credentialed should be tapped on the shoulder.
Athletes need to be told they are not that good. Who cares if the mirror they are looking into while taking “selfie’s” cracks down the middle. It’s called reality. Nugent needed to serve our swimmers a dose of reality. It was his job.
It’s the vanity that caused the toxicity. It starts from the top with arrogance, and filters down and ends up as inanity. Someone take the blame. Put it on Facebook if you have to.
Just don’t let Kenrick Monk lead the press conference when it gets announced.
It’s a pretty good time to be a Tasmanian sports fan right now. After years in the sporting wilderness with not much to celebrate,…
World record-breaking Australian swimmers Mollie O'Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown have headlined the honours as their sport dominated the AIS Performance Awards. Swimming won six…
Kaylee McKeown has completed an extraordinary weekend in Budapest with a third race win and the title of overall women's World Cup champion bringing…
I have always enjoyed watching running and swimming global championships as my two favourite racing sports covering sprint to long distances without the aid…
Australia's Ariarne Titmus has reclaimed the women's 400 metres freestyle world record with a stunning victory at the world championships in Japan. Titmus emphatically…
The jam-packed month-by-month quiz full of 2022 sports trivia!
