‘Anger from athletes’: Swimming Australia won’t silence its athletes in the lead-up to Paris Games

In his first time speaking publicly since being appointed as Swimming Australia CEO, Rob Woodhouse said his organisation won’t stand in the way of athletes speaking out against the recent Chinese doping scandal.

Swimming Australia’s new boss says it would be naive for anyone to believe the latest Chinese doping scandal that has rocked world sport was an isolated case.

In his first interview since being appointed CEO, Rob Woodhouse said the shocking revelations that 23 Chinese swimmers had secretly been cleared of wrongdoing despite testing positive to the same banned drug, would make people wonder how many other incidents had gone unreported.

An internationally renowned sports agent and businessman, Woodhouse said he hadn’t heard of any other mass contamination cases that had been kept secret, in any part of the world, but said it would be gullible to think there wasn’t some.

“I don’t know. None of us know, do we? You’d like to think that it’s not but that would be a pretty naive way of thinking, wouldn’t it?” he said.

“That’s why we need to push for that transparency. Not just now because of what’s happening with China and the CHINADA (China Anti-Doping Agency) situation, but that transparency has got to be ongoing.

“Athletes have a right to have this sort of information and know about it. It’s a really important part of the fight against drugs in sport.”

Swimming Australia has called on the World Anti-Doping Agency for more transparency. Picture: AFP

An Olympic medallist himself at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Woodhouse has been thrown straight into the deep end after starting his new job a couple of weeks ago.

The news, first reported by this masthead, about the Chinese cases has put the sport back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, with the issue threatening to boil over at the Paris Olympics starting in July, including whispers of athlete-led protests.

Woodhouse himself has issued a statement calling for the World Anti-Doping Agency to order an independent review of the case and make the findings public to restore faith in the system.

WADA has agreed but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) remains anxious about the threat of protests in the French capital, not only over the China issue, but also because of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Australian athletes also have a long and proud history of standing up for what they believe in, with Peter Norman participating in the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and Mack Horton protesting at the 2019 world swimming championships.

Peter Norman was on the podium with Tommie Smith and John Carlos for the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

It’s unknown whether any Australians will demonstrate at Paris but Woodhouse said one thing is certain: he won’t be telling anyone to keep their mouths shut.

Nor will he stop anyone from protesting though he does hope any objections happen away from the medal presentations and the field of play, which are both considered sacrosanct.

“I understand the athletes’ views as well but the theme of the Olympics is all about unity and bringing the world together, bringing countries together,” he said.

“Protests, as we know, can lead to discrimination and other issues that can incite violence so it’s something that anyone needs to be very careful about.

“The IOC has obviously their own rules in regards to that, but the athletes may or may not adhere to those rules.

“Personally, I would like to think that protests stay away from the Olympic podium and places like that, because I have no issue with athletes having a voice. I won’t be saying anything to the swimmers in that regard.”

Mack Horton staged a silent protest when Sun Yang was allowed to compete at the 2019 World Championships. Picture: Getty Images

Some Australian swimmers have already made their feelings clear that they are unhappy at the way the Chinese case was handled but Woodhouse isn’t worried it will detract from their preparations for the national trials in mid June to decide the team for Paris.

“All the athletes obviously have a pretty heavy focus on what’s going to happen next month so they want to be concentrating on that, they don’t want this issue to be dominating their thoughts or their preparation,” he said.

“It’s fair to say there is definitely disappointment and some anger from athletes, not just here in Australia but around the world.

“Probably the bigger longer term push for us, which we are continuing to push, is that call for greater transparency in these sorts of cases, because without that, if issues like this pop up from time to time, naturally athletes are just going to get fed up with it.”

Originally published as ‘Anger from athletes’: Swimming Australia won’t silence its athletes in the lead-up to Paris Games