Mack Horton v Sun Yang: Swimmers take on FINA following doping scandals
Doping controversies, outlaw executives, rebellious athletes: The dispute between Mack Horton and Sun Yang has lifted the lid on the scandalous treatment of swimmers, writes Julian Linden.
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‘You loser, I’m winning.”
That’s the now-infamous phrase with which Sun Yang taunted Duncan Scott after the British swimmer snubbed him during the 200m freestyle medal ceremony at the world swimming championships.
But it wasn’t just Scott towards whom the controversial Chinese champion was venting his anger. Sun was sending a blunt warning to everyone in the swimming world who wants to take up arms against him and the sport’s governing body FINA over their handling of doping cases.
REPORT: Sun Yang used hammer to destroy vial of blood
Sun’s message was clear. He has friends in high places who have his back, so they’ll never beat the system that protects him.
Historically, Sun would have been right. But this week’s world championships have muddied the waters. Swimmers have suddenly found their voice and feel empowered by the overwhelming support they’ve received for protesting against the scourge of doping in sport.
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Australian Olympic gold medallist Mack Horton’s refusal to join Sun on the podium after the 400m freestyle final, in protest at FINA’s decision to allow the controversial Chinese freestyler to compete at the championships, ignited the swimming community’s pent-up anger. Then Scott threw more petrol on the fire.
“I’m team Mack,” Scott said. “If (Sun) can’t respect our sport, then why should I respect him?
“I think a lot of people, everyone in swimming, got behind what Mack did. Hopefully this will happen in more events.”
The swimmers are forming unions and have joined a rebel professional league that promises to change the sport forever.
The tide is turning, but the real battles lie ahead because the bureaucrats are fighting back harder than ever. They have already rushed through tough new penalties for anyone who challenges their authority.
But the swimmers aren’t budging this time.
Channelling the exasperated character of Howard Beale from the 1970s hit film Network, the world’s elite swimmers are as mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any more.
“I’ve been going at this for five years and each year I find it more difficult to be diplomatic,” Scott’s British teammate Adam Peaty told The Daily Telegraph.
“I’m getting to the point now where I think ‘f … it’. I need to say something and do something.
“For me, I’m just fed up with doping being in the sport.”
Peaty’s not the only big-name swimmer fed up with FINA. There’s plenty of others spoiling for a fight with the faceless officials who run the sport with an iron fist.
And the site they’ve chosen for their next battleground will be the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when the whole world will be watching.
“People are still going to do it (protest),” Peaty said.
“It’s freedom of speech. Why can’t an athlete have a say on something they believe in? You can’t put a rule on that. It’s like when people take a knee during the national anthem in the NFL.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been paying close attention. Their top brass all know that empowerment is contagious, so the uprising the swimmers have started could quickly spread to other sports.
As exclusively revealed by The Daily Telegraph, that’s why the IOC discreetly asked one of its lawyers to have a quiet word in the ears of FINA’s executives, who planned to ban swimmers from competing in Tokyo if they joined the International Swimming League (ISL). FINA was forced to reluctantly back down.
IOC president Thomas Bach was in the stands in Gwangju when Sun exploded and challenged Scott over his silent protest.
A lawyer, Bach chooses his words diplomatically when he talks in public, but behind closed doors he gets straight to the point.
Sources have told The Saturday Telegraph Bach held private meetings with FINA’s bosses during his flying visit to South Korea.
More talks will take place behind closed doors once the championships are over, to do whatever it takes to avoid a repeat in Tokyo.
Without the IOC’s support, FINA’s power is significantly diluted, especially now the swimmers have found someone else willing to fight in their corner.
The Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin is not just a successful businessman. He’s also a big swimming fan, and came up with an idea to marry his two loves.
His proposal was to create a global series that would build on the enormous attention swimming generates during the Olympics, modernising the family friendly sport the way Big Bash rejuvenated cricket while enabling cash-strapped competitors to finally earn a decent wage.
Swimmers loved the idea. They signed up en masse and were given a voice in how the new league should be run. The first rule they asked for was that anyone who had been busted for doping would be banned from the competition.
That meant Sun wasn’t invited, regardless of whether he loses his appeal for smashing his samples with a hammer, because he served an earlier ban for a failed drugs test in 2014.
FINA liked the idea of the International Swimming League so much they arranged a series of meetings with Grigorishin to get the project off the ground. But everything went pear-shaped when they stuck out their hands, demanding a $72 million “fee” for their stamp of approval.
Grigorishin refused to pay up and all hell broke loose.
“FINA, like other federations, is a very bureaucratic and political organisation,” he told The Telegraph. “It’s not a business entity, it’s not for the athletes, it’s more for themselves.”
FINA’s response was typical of the authoritarian way they run the sport. They sent letters to each international federation, including Swimming Australia, threatening to ban anyone who joined ISL from competing at the Olympics.
FINA went after the ringleaders, particularly Hungary’s multi-gold medallist Katinka Hosszu. Sources have told The Telegraph that one of FINA’s top executives confronted her in person and warned her that if she didn’t back down he would take the matter up with the Hungarian President, who he knows personally.
The national federations all caved in but the swimmers didn’t blink, joining Grigorishin by filing a class-action anti-trust lawsuit in California.
FINA’s instinct was to punish the swimmers even more, but when the IOC’s lawyer came knocking, it was their turn to blink.
Privately, some FINA members were elated. There are people in the Bureau — FINA’s governing committee — who have the best interests of swimmers at heart, but they’re frightened to go against the party line.
Perhaps they have good reason to be nervous, because FINA is not your ordinary club.
Tamas Gyarfas, a former board member who is still on the Bureau, is currently under house arrest in Hungary after being charged for ordering the murder of media tycoon Janos Fenyo in the 1990s. Fenyo was killed after a gunman opened fire and sprayed him with bullets while he was being driven in downtown Budapest.
Ben Ekumbo, the former head of the Kenyan swimming federation, was jailed after allegedly stealing millions of dollars worth of sports equipment during the Rio Olympics. He was found by police hiding under a bed.
While he was in prison, further charges were laid after young swimmers came forward and accused him of molesting them.
Husain Al Musallam, who is almost certain to be appointed the next FINA president, has been named as a possible co-conspirator in the FBI’s investigation into the FIFA scandal after he allegedly bribed an Asian soccer official.
The Kuwaiti was also implicated in a corruption scandal in 2017 when a recording of him asking for a 10 per cent commission on sponsorship deals for the Olympic Council of Asia was leaked.
The former head of Brazilian swimming Coaracy Nunes, a former FINA board member, was arrested for embezzling millions of dollars of public funds after an investigation into fraud.
FINA has a Code of Ethics and a panel authorised to sanction anyone who breaches the rules, but none of the members have been reported for their actions.
FINA does give out all sorts of awards, though, to people it likes. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been given FINA’s highest honour, as has Lothar Kipke.
Kipke got his gong for being a longserving member of FINA’s medical commission.
Before that, however, he’d been one of the doctors who oversaw the mass doping of East German swimmers. He remains on FINA’s honour roll to this day.
One FINA member, speaking anonymously because of the fear of repercussions, told The Saturday Telegraph the people who worry most in FINA are the reformists, because anyone who dares to publicly speak out in support of the swimmers is ostracised.
And they fear the punishment trickles down to the swimmers they’re trying to help, because the payback is their proposed reforms are killed off.
Although FINA makes millions of dollars from its star athletes, it rejects their every request.
In 2009, FINA refused to ban the polyurethane bodysuits that turned the world championships into a joke. They did eventually change the rules, but only after almost every world record in the book had been demolished.
In 2010, they ignored concerns of swimmers that a 10km open-water Grand Prix in the United Arab Emirates was dangerous due to high water temperatures. The race went ahead with tragic results, with American Fran Crippen suffering heat exhaustion and drowning.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, FINA infuriated swimmers by starting the finals at 10pm each night to get a better TV deal, while Australians have been unable to watch these world championships because no broadcaster would pay FINA’s greedy fees, with FINA demanding $1500 for every 30 seconds of footage even for press conferences.
The irony is the most-watched footage of the championships has been the protests against Sun that may ultimately be FINA’s undoing.
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