Swimming Australia rocked by billionaire former sponsor Gina Rinehart’s bombshell funding claim

As crisis-torn Swimming Australia faces the threat of expulsion from its sport, former billionaire sponsor Gina Rinehart dropped a funding bombshell which could prove to be the final nail in the governing body’s coffin.

Mega-sponsor Gina Rinehart has walked away from Swimming Australia as the crisis-torn body faces the threat of expulsion from its sport.

Rinehart has injected more than $60 million into Olympic and Paralympic sports and still sponsors 92 elite swimmers – but her relationship with Swimming Australia (SA) was broken two years ago.

Remarkably Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, and the swimmers are becoming closer as the national swim team surges to world beating heights while SA is in disarray.

This is partially the reason why the sport in Australia is leading a bizarre double life, mixing record medal hauls with mayhem.

With 13 gold medals at the recent World Championships in Fukuoka, Australia is now the world’s No.1 swimming nation with Rinehart’s backing allowing athletes to train as fulltime professionals.

But behind the scenes there has been incredible, unprecedented turmoil.

Gina Rinehart’s bombshell claims is another headache for a sport in turmoil.

Former chief executive Eugenie Buckley resigned in April this year after a power battle with the disenchanted state member organisations.

The sport’s global parent body, World Aquatics, has threatened to expel Australia unless it improves its governance and there will be a major vote on a proposed new constitution at a watershed meeting on Friday.

SA’s sponsorship has dropped from around $10 million to just over $3 million a year after Rinehart withdrew her backing two years ago.

This masthead can reveal that the breakdown between Rinehart and SA can be traced back to a chance conversation Rinehart had with the parent of an Olympic swimmer in July, 2021.

THE NOOSA SHOCK

When the Australian team headed to Tokyo for the delayed 2020 Olympics, Rinehart partly sponsored the parents on a trip to Noosa where they could meet twice daily in a conference room to watch their sons and daughters swim for gold.

She joined them in the room but kept a low key presence away from the Channel 7 cameras which were beaming live responses around Australia.

Amid the raucous celebrations of Australia’s stellar Olympics a simple conversation between Rinehart and the parent of a swimmer took Rinehart aback and jolted her confidence in SA.

The parent said the swimmer had not received the funding he was due out of a multimillion-dollar sponsorship by Rinehart to SA which was to be paid to the swimmers.

SA, in a response to this claim, said: “SA was made aware that a swimmer had not put in his invoice and therefore had not been paid in late July, 2021. Upon receiving this information - the swimmer, who SA was told did not know how to download the invoice form - was paid in August, 2021.’’

Gina Rinehart with Australia’s superstar swimmers and former Swimming Australia boss John Bertrand Picture: supplied

SA forwarded to this masthead a list of total payments given the athletes via the sponsorship in that period.

But Mrs Rinehart then found out it wasn’t one but six Olympians who hadn’t timely received their funding despite Mrs Rinehart providing the funding to SA.

Mrs Rinehart also learnt from another parent, that funding was at multiple times delayed which made it difficult for them despite the fact that the Rinehart funding was never late to SA.

There was no mention at that time, that one or any of the parents had difficulty filling out any forms SA required.

Alarm bells rang and the starting gun in the quest for accountability had unofficially been fired.

That triggered …

THE CLOSED BOOKS

Unsettled by this Rinehart asked to see not only the minimum audited accounts of the swimmer payment program, but a further detailed reconciliation of individual payments to athletes each year.

This is where the gulf between some SA officials and Rinehart widened considerably because she was not given access to the records she sought and considered their response “rude.’’

Partially as a consequence of this and not wanting the swimmers to be deprived of payments or suffer, Mrs Rinehart decided to change the way she paid them, instead channelling the funds to close to 100 Olympic and Paralympic swimmers Australia wide through Swimming Queensland (SQ).

Mrs Rinehart changed to SQ with whom she had a longer relationship, to handle the swimmers funding – and the feedback is that this is working very well.

“I still can’t believe Swimming Australia lost the greatest benefactor I’ve seen since Santa Claus,’’ said Swimming Queensland chief executive Kevin Hasemann.

Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has poured $40 million into swimming since 2012. Picture: AAP/Darren England

“Mrs Rinehart’s generosity towards our sport is astonishing. She’s been sponsoring swimming for the past 35 years, tipping in over $40m since 2012 through the Hancock Prospecting Swimmer Support Scheme, the lifeblood of performance swimming in Australia. A further $40m has been committed to the scheme leading up to the 2032 Home Olympics.

“Australia’s Tokyo triumph and ascension to world number one at the recent World Championships simply couldn’t have happened without Mrs Rinehart. And, but for her, the prospect of Australian swimmers replicating their amazing Tokyo record in Brisbane in 2032 would be torpedoed, and Australia’s prospects of a high medal tally would be a pipe dream.

“As the current administrators of the HPSSS, Swimming Queensland is enjoying a smooth, professional relationship with Mrs Rinehart and her team”

Even before the Noosa eye opening there had been concerns from Rinehart over other aspects of the swimming ecosystem.

THE DINNERS THAT NEVER HAPPENED

Rinehart’s own swimming gala awards night – The Patron’s Awards – at her home in Brisbane next month is partly a consequence of a funding fallout over two gala awards nights which never happened.

It is understood she parted with around $400,000 for two gala awards ceremonies in 2020 and 2021 which were cancelled by SA, and, only after repeated requests, was later given a portion of these funds back.

Such gala award dinners were an important annual event, with coaches, swimmers, parents, families, partners, volunteers and special guests all invited to attend.

After SA cancelled the 2020 Patron’s Awards dinner, Mrs Rinehart funded a smaller dinner for the swimmers only as nominated by the then highly-regarded CEO Alex Baumann.

Rinehart (R) with Cate Campbell. Picture: Richard Walker

Ariarne Titmus and Gina Rinehart.

The funding for this was provided by Mrs Rinehart personally and additionally to the $400,000 that had been provided to Swimming Australia for the two cancelled years of the gala award dinners.

However, the much smaller dinner arranged to assist with the disappointment of the nominated swimmers, could not fairly be described as a replacement for either of the two annual gala events that SA had cancelled.

SA responded to the dinner debate by declaring: “The 2020 Awards that were cancelled due to COVID operated under a separate contracting arrangement whereby they were a sponsor benefit as one element of a suite of benefits exchanged for a sponsorship agreement.

“In regard to 2021 Annual Awards, also cancelled due to COVID, Mrs Rinehart received a refund payment of $248,325 on 20th December of 2021.”

But the damage was done, Rinehart took measures to ensure her money was accountable.

THE SILENT BOARD MEMBER

Concerned by the mysterious delegation of her finances, Rinehart asked whether her company Hancock Prospecting could have a member on the SA board.

They met her partway – granting in part a set of eyes but no voice - but it did not heal the wounds.

Mrs Rinehart told this masthead: “A voiceless observer, hardly an interference with the board. Especially when we learnt that on most matters our observer was asked to leave the room, on grounds of “conflict”.

“I suspect if a swimmer was given permission to be a director, or a pod parent, that they may meet the same fate … excluded from much of the actual board meetings.’’

However where Rinehart became unpopular was when asking for accountability to expenses.

Mrs Rinehart said: “I don’t think it is an unusual or unfair expectation for any sponsor of sports to be sure its funds are going to the athletes and if applicable for agreed purposes. We don’t have such problems with any of the other Olympic sports we sponsor.’’

DIVES AND TURNS

Despite Rinehart’s concern over the spending of her sponsorship dollars, she denies any suggestion she had an overbearing personal influence on the running of the sport.

She was observed at the recent world championships in Japan, and earlier seeing the team off from Cairns prior to the Tokyo Olympics, and over the years enthusiastically supporting pool side.

SA said it parted ways with Rinehart because “during the re-negotiation process it was clear a number of Hancock Prospecting’s terms, including the mandating of Board and Executive positions, were not capable of acceptance.’’

Friends of Australian Sports Commission chief executive Kieren Perkins last month anonymously accused Rinehart of trying to “coach the team and run the board’’ in a story in Nine newspapers, but she denies this.

“I think the swimmers would all know, that it is not really correct,’’ she said, claiming there were only two or perhaps three occasions when she made suggestions to program schedules or training aides.

“The first was to follow the lead of the USA – then the best team in the world – learn what could from them and hold Olympic trials closer to the Games rather than almost four months out, thinking “a lot could happen in that time’’ between the trials and the Games.

Swimming Australia patron Gina Rinehart. Picture: Matthew McInerney

“I didn’t know this at the time, but apparently some coaches had also pushed for holding the trials closer to the Olympics, so, I may not have been the first to suggest to the then president and the then head coach”.

After a modest or disappointing Rio Olympics in 2016, Australia changed this system for the Tokyo Olympics and immediately tapped into a telling vein of golden form.

Another Rinehart suggestion was to learn from the SAS preparation and training, and this was followed through successfully with then president John Bertrand.

Her other suggestion came after the World Championships in Budapest.

“It was clear for me to see that our swimmers were fast and should have been enjoying more medals, but it was their diving (and turning) that was letting them down.” she said.

“I suggested to (Swimming Australia) our swimmers should benefit from the Clogs Motion Analysis system that the USA swimmers enjoyed, to film their dives and turns, and help them improve.

“I then additionally bought several Clogs Motion Analysis systems and it seems this poolside equipment has helped, including for up and coming swimmers I’ve been told.’’

While small, precious cogs are being carefully put in place to help their swimmers dominate the world, mayhem swirls around the sport.

Serenity, progress and gold medals in the pool have been matched by boardroom chaos which may see the end of the Swimming Australia board.

Originally published as Swimming Australia rocked by billionaire former sponsor Gina Rinehart’s bombshell funding claim