Olympics 2024: Qualification farce over Swimming Australia’s cruel selection policy shattering Olympic dreams

What should have been a week of celebration for Australia’s fastest swimmers has been marred by a cold-hearted selection policy that has ruined the dreams of a number of Olympic hopefuls.

Australia's Alexandria Perkins competes in a heat of the women's 4X100m medley relay swimming event during the 2024 World Aquatics Championships at Aspire Dome in Doha on February 18, 2024. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)

The swimmers privately hate it. The parents absolutely despise it. And now the Australian public has seen for themselves just how cruel and unnecessary Swimming Australia’s Olympic selection policy is.

What should have been a week of celebration for Australia’s fastest swimmers has been marred by the callous policy that has ruined the dreams of already vulnerable young athletes already coping with the crippling pressure of high-performance sport.

Going against Australia’s mantra of giving everyone a fair go, a handful of Aussie swimmers who have qualified for the Paris Olympics face being left at home because of a draconian ruling by administrators.

Instead of using the already difficult official Olympic qualifying times that most other countries follow – including the United States – Swimming Australia has imposed its own standards, which are often even harder.

The result has been that some swimmers who have met the official qualification standards won’t get to go to Paris – or were robbed of what should have been one of the happiest moments of their lives.

It’s such a cold-hearted policy that legendary coach Laurie Lawrence once said it made him want to vomit because it doesn’t take into account how much Aussie swimmers can improve when they get to the Olympics.

Legendary swim coach Laurie Lawrence says the current selection rules make him “want to spew”. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

And he should know. He coached Jon Sieben when he won gold in the 200m butterfly at the 1984 Olympics and Duncan Armstrong when he won the 200m freestyle gold in 1988.

If Swimming Australia’s current selection rules were in place at the time, neither Sieben or Armstrong would have even qualified for Olympics because they didn’t meet the elevated requirements.

“It makes me want to spew. It should be first and second and away you go,” Lawrence said.

“It’s cutthroat enough to finish first or second at the trials but plenty of swimmers are pure racers that will improve when they get to the Olympics.”

Swimming has always been a cutthroat sport with little room for sentiment, but this policy is hugely unpopular, and led to some awkward moments at the Brisbane Aquatics Centre, with swimmers reduced to tears and crowds groaning in disappointment because they want them on the team to Paris.

The hugely unpopular policy has already led to much disappointment in qualification at the Brisbane Aquatics Centre. Picture: Patrick Hamilton

There are loopholes which allow selectors to make some discretionary choices so not everyone who missed the elevated qualifying time will be left off the team for Paris.

But that will all be decided behind closed doors instead of in the pool, leading to some awkward moments on the pool deck with swimmers being interviewed on national television looking glum when they should have been celebrating with their families watching from the stands.

Isaac Cooper, who won the 100m backstroke but outside the required Australian time, used his interview to plead his case for selection.

Lizzie Dekkers, who did qualify under the time, recalled how devastated she was to miss the team three years ago when she was a victim of the policy.

William Yang, who underwent surgery a year ago to remove a tumour, wasn’t even called to the microphone after he finished second in the 100m freestyle behind Kyle Chalmers.

He’s guaranteed to make the team because of the relay but it’s up to the selectors whether he swims the individual event.

The policy was introduced by former head coach Jacco Verhaeren during the fallout that followed the Dolphins’ disappointing results at the 2012 London Olympics.

Swimming Australia agreed to bend the rules in 2021 to allow Matt Wilson to swim at Tokyo after he was caught out by the cold-blooded policy.

A former world record holder, Wilson made the official qualifying time but missed the harder Australian requirement by a heartbeat while grieving the passing of his grandmother Pam.

The sight of Wilson sobbing in the pool while being comforted by his teammates was highly distressing, and turned the spotlight on SA’s callous selection rules.

Swimming Australia invoked its rarely-used compassion clause to pick Wilson for Tokyo then announced it was scrapping the selection policy for the 2022 world championships and Commonwealth Games.

The Australian team performed incredibly at the world championships and Commonwealth Games but for reasons that still make no sense, it was reinstated for Paris.

Originally published as Olympics 2024: Qualification farce over Swimming Australia’s cruel selection policy shattering Olympic dreams