Commonwealth Games 2022: Overloaded swimmers to boycott world championships

After being exposed as self-interested old boy’s club, FINA vowed reform. For a while they had us fooled. Their strong stance on trans athletes suggested change. How wrong we were.

All the great work swimming’s world governing body FINA has done to restore its battered reputation has been ruined by one of the dumbest and ill-conceived decisions it has ever come up with.

After being exposed as an old boy’s club where a lot of executives were more worried about the generous perks they handed out to themselves than the way they treated their own competitors, FINA made a solemn pledge it would commit to serious reform.

And for a while it almost seemed like they were genuine about putting the interests of athletes first.

They increased prizemoney and grants to athletes, they brought in outsiders to shake things up, they agreed to set up new reform committees and athletes bodies. Heck, they even appointed women to the executive after ignoring females for the best part of a century.

Even more surprising, FINA’s new leaders did what no other sport in the world was prepared to do when they bit the bullet and created a historical policy for transgender athletes, protecting biological women while opening the way for an “open category” that gives everyone a chance to compete.

Kyle Chalmers, Zac Incerti and Meg Harris, at training . Picture: Michael Klein

They copped a lot of criticism for it, but it seemed the ultimate proof that one of the most authoritarian sporting bodies on the planet was finally listening.

But just when FINA had everyone fooled, they showed how completely out of touch they really are by insisting on holding the world championships in Qatar in 2024 — five months before the Paris Olympics, when athletes are in hard training.

Forget the FINA spin that it was a contractual issue, because the real issue here is the wellbeing of athletes — which FINA promised to make its number one priority. And on that count, FINA has failed in its duty.

Holding a world championships in the scorching temperatures of the Persian Gulf is insane enough, but the timing is an insult to what the world championships represent.

The title of champion of the world is not something that should be taken lightly.

It’s an incredible achievement that should represent what its title is: champion of the world.

It was bad enough that FINA went against the wishes of athletes and held a hastily arranged world championships in Budapest last month — resulting in the absence of swimmers who would almost certainly have won.

But many more will be absent if FINA goes ahead with its proposed 2024 event in Doha — and it will cast a stain on the sport that will take years to remove.

It’s time FINA got serious about where its priorities lie.

SWIMMING BOYCOTT: BULLY TACTICS EXPOSED BY ‘INSANE SCHEDULE’

The best swimmers on the planet could stage a mass boycott of future world championships if the sport’s heirarchy persist with overloading them with major events in countries accused of human rights abuses and war crimes.

At the same time as health experts are warning about the undue pressures being placed on elite athletes following a spike in suicides since the start of the global pandemic, swimming’s world governing body FINA is bullishly ploughing ahead with plans to stage four world championships in four successive years.

This includes squeezing one into Qatar in early 2024 — just five months before the Paris Olympics — then proceeding with another in Russia in 2025, despite the outrage at Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Swimmers and coaches the world over have pleaded with FINA’s bosses to come up with a better plan, stripping Russia of hosting rights and moving the Qatar edition from 2024 to 2025, but their requests have fallen on deaf ears.

So now they’re planning to take matters into their own hands, by refusing to show up even though FINA’s rulers have added a nasty qualifying clause for the Paris Olympics to effectively force competitors to go to the Gulf.

Australian swim coach Rohan Taylor says the plans are pointless

STARS WILL STAY HOME

Leading swim nations, including Australia, have had enough of FINA’s bullying tactics and say they are serious about not sending their best teams to Doha.

“I’ve been very clear that I don’t see the point of having a competition then,” Australian head coach Rohan Taylor told News Corp.

“I know there’s aspects that I don’t understand but for me, looking at our athletes and the health and wellbeing of everybody and the financial capacity, I think we just need a breather just to get ourselves back into what we’re used to.

“It‘s just been chaotic these last couple of years.”

England head coach Mel Marshall said she was also deeply concerned about the impact on the wellbeing of athletes forced to compete in a competition that could ruin their Olympic aspirations.

“This event does not have my support,” she told News Corp. “It not happening would be a good thing for the welfare of athletes in my opinion.”

I ain’t going https://t.co/kKzk7hFatc

— James Guy (@Jimbob95goon) July 13, 2022

It’ll be interesting to see what Athletes thought having a World Championships after 3 years in a row of them that it would be a good idea with the Olympics that year too. January just isn’t the right time imo. https://t.co/dMgUPtM7bg

— Adam Peaty OBE (@adam_peaty) July 12, 2022

Her view was echoed by Britain’s best swimmers, who are at the Commonwealth Games, where the issue is threatening to boil over.

Scotland’s Duncan Scott, who famously joined Mack Horton in protesting against Chinese drug cheat Sun Yang being allowed to compete at the 2019 world championships, tweeted: “Totally bizarre decision and one I hope gets reconsidered! Surely just move it to 2025?”

Scott’s teammate James Guy went even further, declaring: “I ain’t going.”

Rohan Taylor has rubbished the idea of too much competition

FINA CHANGES THE RULES

While countries can qualify swimmers for the Olympics through their own national selection meets, relay berths are decided by the results from the world championships held the previous year.

So in a blatant bid to force countries to go to Doha, FINA has changed its own rules so only the top three finishers from the 2023 world titles, to be held in Fukuoka, Japan, will qualify automatically for Paris.

All the others though will be decided in Doha, which was originally chosen to host the 2023 championships but got moved back because of Covid disruptions.

Taylor said Australia would be forced to send relay teams to Doha if they still needed to qualify, but it would be left to individual swimmers if they wanted to go.

“We won’t be running any selection trials, that’s just too expensive and it’s not feasible,” he said.

“Depending on budget, we might send a small group of individuals, but it’ll be up to them if they think it suits their preparations for Paris.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if some went because they want that high level of competition … but my guess is most of our higher-level athletes would be less likely because their focus is going to be on Paris.”

Will Australia’s biggest stars boycott?

FAVOURS THE RICH

Aussie swim great Rob Woodhouse, who won multiple medals during his career and is the uncle of Emma McKeon, slammed FINA’s decision as unfair and biased towards richer countries.

“It’s a shocking idea, particularly favouring the strong swim nations who can afford not to have their biggest sprint stars there as they’ll have qualified all their relays in Fukuoka,” he told News Corp.

“It also messes with US college athletes … and they almost certainly haven’t consulted with athletes, coaches and national federations about it.”

Several countries competing at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham confirmed they had not been consulted about FINA”s plans — but not for the first time.

FINA also hastily arranged a world championships in Budapest this year without consulting athletes, resulting in a partial snub with Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus among the absentees.

Canada’s head coach John Atkinson told News Corp the sooner FINA reinstated the traditional calendar the better.

“It’s a complicated jigsaw puzzle at the moment,” he said. “We look forward to getting back to what was considered a normal schedule of events prior to the pandemic.”

FINA told News Corp it was aware that many athletes were opposed to the decision, but it was standing firm because it was a contractual issue.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to the sporting calendar. The 21st FINA World Championships Doha 2024 were originally scheduled for the summer of 2023, but the rescheduling of the 20th FINA World Championships Fukuoka necessitated a change to the Doha event dates.

“We appreciate the flexibility of the organising committee in Doha to delay until 2024, but it would not have been possible under the terms of the contract to host the Doha event after early 2024.”