FINA swimming reform: Former president Mustapha Larfaoui booted off the sport’s gravy train forever
FINA is set for a landmark overhaul that better reflects the sport’s changing leadership after decades of being run by old men, Julian Linden reports.
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The international swimming boss accused of leaking Ian Thorpe’s private test results, which threatened to tarnish his career and reputation is finally being booted out of the sport.
No public announcement has been made – nor will there be because the long overdue banishment will be wrapped up in a bundle of major reforms – but News Corp can exclusively reveal former FINA president Mustapha Larfaoui is being kicked off the sport’s gravy train forever.
Larfaoui will be cut loose as part of a series of landmark changes that are included in a proposed new constitution that will be considered for adoption at the annual FINA Congress, taking place in Melbourne on Monday.
The key recommendations include promoting more women to positions of power, reducing the maximum age limits, and getting rid of the filthy four-letter F-word that has tarnished swimming’s reputation for generations.
The notorious acronym FINA will be ditched and replaced with a brand new name that better reflects the sport’s changing leadership after decades of being run by old men.
Currently, less than 15% of the FINA Bureau members are women but that will rise to around 40% as part of the recommended changes, while a new age limit of 75 will be introduced for all members.
Controversially, the 90-year-old Larfaoui has been allowed to keep living the high life after ruling the sport for more than two decades.
FINA’s longest serving president, the exiled Algerian stepped down in 2009 after being reappointed as honorary life president, a sweet deal that has enabled him to continue flying business-class around the world and staying in luxurious 5-star hotels without lifting a finger.
But that will all come to an abrupt end on Monday when FINA votes to adopt a new constitution, which includes scrapping the honorary presidential titles and lavish perks granted to both Larfaoui and his successor, 87-year-old Uruguayan Julio Maglione.
Highly-placed sources say the outcome of the vote is considered a virtual fait accompli and Larfaoui has already been told the game is up so won’t make the trip to Australia to bear witness to his own ceremonial axing.
That’s probably just as well because it’s unlikely the ageing administrator would have been welcomed back with open arms following his last trip to Melbourne.
That was during the 2007 world championships, when Thorpe’s private medical details were leaked to a French newspaper.
At the time, Thorpe was among a group of leading competitors openly challenging FINA’s ruthless control of the sport by advocating for athlete’s rights and greater transparency about how the sport’s enormous profits were being spent.
But Thorpe inexplicably found himself thrust into the spotlight when his confidential medical records were reported by L’Équipe, revealing that one of his samples had shown elevated levels of testosterone.
It is not unusual for athletes to return samples with abnormal levels and in Thorpe’s case his results were proven to be naturally occurring so he was rightfully cleared of any wrongdoing by a panel of international experts and never charged with any breach.
But for a swimmer whose wholesome reputation was built around his strong stance on clean sport, the mere suggestion one of his samples was being scrutinised was soul destroying.
Not only that, but the publication of his name and the leaked confidential report represented a serious breach of the strict privacy protocols for anti-doping cases, prompting an international search for the culprit.
FINA was the prime suspect but has always denied leaking the reports but in mid 2021 a special two-year investigation by News Corp identified Larfaoui as the alleged source of the leak.
An eyewitness, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he saw Larfaoui approach a renowned drug-busting journalist from L’Equipe at a reception in Montreal in 2006 and proceeded to tell him about the adverse results involving a high profile swimmer.
Larfaoui has always denied deliberately trying to smear Thorpe’s reputation, reportedly telling his inner circle he did not know the man was a journalist, but that is no excuse, because saying anything to anyone still amounts to a flagrant breach of athlete privacy rules.
When contacted by News Corp in 2021, Larfaoui did not deny speaking to the French journalist but said he no longer recalled what he told him.
News Corp’s in-depth probe also revealed the extraordinary lengths FINA went to pursue Thorpe, including the unearthing of a confidential report about how it pressured Australian doping investigators to charge him with a violation even when all the scientific evidence pointed to the fact he was innocent.
The report also revealed how FINA secretly ordered target tests on Thorpe while he was training in the United States and filed two appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the Australian authorities ruled that Thorpe had no case to answer.
Following the publication of the investigation, FINA’s newly-elected president Husain Al-Musallam made a promise to reform FINA.
Before he was a sports administrator, Al-Musallam was a commercial air pilot in his homeland Kuwait.
In 1982, he was caught up in a hijacking, when 12 armed men stormed Kuwaiti Airlines Flight 538, which had just arrived in Lebanon from Libya.
They fired off rounds and took the crew and 105 passengers on board hostage.
Al-Musallam was the co-pilot but because the pilot was British and didn’t speak Arabic, he took it upon himself to try and negotiate a deal with the Shiite hijackers.
It took him nine hours, but eventually he succeeded and they agreed to free everyone.
True to his word, he has been pushing through revolutionary changes in swimming since taking over the leadership, culminating in the new constitution that will be voted on Monday.
In a sign of how quickly things have turned around, before arriving in Australia for the Congress, he went on a tour to the South Pacific to spread the message about the changes he was making and was accompanied by Thorpe.
Fresh doubts on bombshell transgender swimming ruling
Swimming’s groundbreaking decision to create a world-first “open” category for trans athletes has hit choppy waters, with the secret panel in charge of the controversial process still unclear which way it will go.
The sports world is quietly holding its breath waiting to see what swimming’s global leaders will do next after they took the plunge and became the first major sport to effectively ban transgender women from competing at international level events such as the Olympics.
FINA is still determined to find a solution to one of the biggest dilemmas in world sport – how to establish a fair competition for athletes who don’t fit into the traditional gender categories.
But – unsurprisingly – solving this quandary has become so thorny that it is taking longer than expected, prompting FINA to postpone its ambitious goal to provide a sneak preview into how the new category will look.
FINA had hoped to give the world an insight into its classified work so far at its annual Congress, taking place in Melbourne on Monday, on the eve of the shortcourse world championships.
But the reformist executive who oversaw FINA’s meticulous groundwork that led to the bombshell announcement on trans swimming at Budapest in June – where Australia’s queen of the pool Cate Campbell delivered an inspiring speech – has confirmed those plans are now on hold.
Instead, the earliest anyone will get a glimpse into FINA’s intentions will be in the middle of 2023 during the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
“We’ve assembled a group. There’s been a number of meetings. They have been working for probably four to five months on the concept, but they’re going to need more time,” FINA CEO Brent Nowicki told News Corp.
“We had our last meeting about a month ago and at that point there was a request just for some additional time. They want to get it right.”
FINA’s decision not to reveal anything more about its contentious trans athlete policy could save next week’s Congress from becoming a flashpoint for protests, but it could also put more pressure on other sporting bodies waiting to see what swimming does before making their own announcements.
While FINA was applauded for being the first sport prepared to go through the wall, it was also heavily criticised – which is partly why Nowicki wants the working group to take as much time as it needs before reaching a decision.
“It’s complex,” he said. “They want to make sure that they get all their touch points in place before anything is kind of rolled out, if it’s rolled out at all.
“And, frankly speaking, I’m not sure where it’ll go. I’ve really tried to remove myself from the discussion out of just pure respect for what they want to do and what they think is the best thing to do.
“I don’t want to push them. I want to get it right, so I don’t really feel they need to rush to make a decision on this.
“But I can say, earnestly, that it’s going well. There’ve been some really great interactions and some really great suggestions that have been reported back to me, so I’m highly motivated by their work.”
Even so, FINA is not taking any chances because the sensitivity around the issue remains so highly charged.
Although it is known the working group includes scientists, human rights advocates, lawyers and trans athletes, their identities remain strictly confidential.
“I won’t disclose the names of them, out of respect (and to prevent) people contacting them and pressuring them,” Nowicki said.
“It‘s better just to let them do the work. But I will say that there are a nice mix of trans athletes, trans individuals, people who’ve been involved in event organisation and the swimming side.
“They are a diverse group so there shouldn‘t be so much concern that it’s going to be this white male, stereotypical focus group. It’s not the case.”
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