Swimming Australia keen to host FINA world championships, Eugenie Buckley’s grand plans
Swimming Australia’s new CEO Eugenie Buckley is eager to capitalise on the success of our Olympic stars and is planning an audacious bid to host one of the sport’s biggest events.
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Australia is planning an audacious bid to snatch the biggest event in international swimming after secretly kissing and making up with the sport’s world governing body.
The official bidding process is yet to begin but the odds are already shortening that Australia will host the FINA world championships in either 2029 or 2031.
It’s no secret the world’s leading swimming nations gave up hosting world championships because of the outrageous fees charged by greedy FINA executives but that all came to an abrupt halt when FINA’s newly-elected president effectively blew up the organisation and vowed to rebuild it from scratch, introducing major reforms and constitutional changes that prioritised athletes ahead of officials.
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Swimming Australia’s newly-appointed chief executive officer Eugenie Buckley has been quick off the blocks in reopening talks about bringing the biggest events to Australia in the build up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.
“Absolutely we want to see the very best in the world competing on home soil so that’s why we’ve opened the dialogue with FINA,” Buckley said. “We want to host it but we’re not going to be paying any rights fees.”
The last time Australia hosted the world swimming championships was in 2007 but the timing could not be better with Queensland set to host the ultimate international sporting event and SA also rebuilding itself after years of underperforming both in and out of the pool.
The Dolphins are once again the pride of the nation after the team’s stunning success in Tokyo but SA’s administrators still have some catching up to do.
Despite having the backing of mining magnate Gina Rinehart and generous support from the federal government, SA’s bottom line isn’t as rosy as it should be.
The Dolphins don’t have a major sponsor, or a free-to-air broadcast partner, or regular competitions to showcase Australia’s megastar swimmers, including Emma McKeon, Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown, Cate Campbell and Kyle Chalmers.
The organisation has looked like a revolving door in the past two years, with the appointment of two different chief executives, a new president, new board members, a new head coach and a new high-performance director.
One of a handful of women who have been appointed as CEOs of major Australian sports, Buckley says she’s in for the long haul and is regarded by industry insiders as a no-nonsense boss who cut her teeth working alongside heavy-hitters, including John O’Neill and Matt Carroll.
She comes in at a turbulent time with SA being confronted by historic and recent claims of abuse while negotiating with Sport Integrity Australia about joining the National Integrity Framework and agreeing to independent investigations.
Buckley has unequivocally put women at the forefront of her plans to rebuild SA, but rejects the notion she’s a fish out of water in an organisation traditionally dominated by men.
“I‘ve been the first female, I don’t know how many times, but what’s incumbent upon me is making sure that when you are the first you’re not the last because it’s 2021 and we shouldn’t be having this conversation,” she said.
“I don’t feel like swimming as a misogynist culture or anything like that. There’s more females on the board, there’s more females in management, there’s more females as fans, our female athletes are absolute world-beating leaders.
“One of our priorities is the proactive identification of female leaders and female coaches ... because it’s not good enough. We want our coaches and everyone swimming to be reflective of Australian society.”
Buckley’s other big goal is to get more money in the pockets of swimmers, by creating new events and sponsorship opportunities.
Its own worst enemy in the past, SA has brought in outside help to better promote the star performers and is planning to unveil a series of new events to keep the sport in the spotlight during the long gaps between each Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“We’re having a massive push on marketing and we’ve got a commercial agency which are going to give us a whole lot of expertise and a whole lot of resources and just that real energy and enthusiasm,” she said.
“This is our runway. We’ve got 11 years to get it right. We’ve got two (Olympic cycles) then a home cycle. I think everything’s aligning really well, we’ve just got to get out there.”
Emotional Maddi’s tears at Covid struggle
-Emma Greenwood
Olympic golden girl Madi Wilson has broken down while revealing the difficulty of battling illness while being away from home after continuing her FINA World Cup winning run.
Wilson, who won gold and bronze as a relay swimmer in Tokyo, as well as making the final of the individual 200m freestyle, has been in sparkling form in the World Cup season over the last month, despite picking up Covid following the Games.
Wilson, who did not return to Australia following the Olympics, has been away from friends and family for four months at training camps in north Queensland and then the Olympic Games before joining her International Swimming League outfit Los Angeles Current and then competing in all four World Cup meets.
While her performances have been rewarding, there have also been massive challenges, such as contracting Covid in September and requiring treatment in hospital.
In an Instagram post, Wilson said she did not even think she would have been able to compete just a month ago, so was extremely proud of how her body held up.
It did more than just hold up though, with Wilson going through the four World Cup rounds sweeping the 200m freestyle and finishing in the top three women overall behind Aussie teammate Emma McKeon.
“I’m really emotional,” Wilson said after winning the 200m freestyle at the final World Cup meet in Kazan.
“It’s been a really long tour for me.
“I was sick before we started this tour and I just feel relieved to have finished the 200m free and to have all four under my belt means a lot, especially, I’ve been away from my family for a really long time and I miss them so much.
“So the support that I felt from the development team here in Kazan and everyone around is really good.”
Finishing in the top three overall in the World Cup standings combined with her event results, earnt Wilson $70,000 and combined with her ISL efforts, she is on track to be able to train as a full-time professional in the lead-up to next year’s Commonwealth Games and world championships.
McKeon, meanwhile, earnt $191,500 for finishing as the leading woman across all four World Cup meets, continuing her stellar year in the pool.
Kyle Chalmers has also hit a purple patch of form, finishing the series as the fourth best male overall to earn almost $64,000 while he picked up another $13,000 for his world record in the 100m freestyle in Kazan
King Kyle rules the world after mind-blowing swim
-Julian Linden
Aussie swim star Kyle Chalmers has broken one of the oldest world records in the sport after a mind-blowing performance in Russia.
Competing at the final round of the World Cup in Kazan, King Kyle smashed the 100 metres short course world record when he touched the wall in a sizzling 44.84 seconds.
His time bettered the old mark of 44.94, set by Frenchman Amaury Leveaux in 2008, which had long been considered untouchable because it was set in one of the now-banned body suits that were allowed at the time.
The suits were eventually prohibited but not until almost all of the sport’s world records had been destroyed.
It has taken more than a decade but slowly most of those records are now being wiped off the books.
For Chalmers, breaking the record was especially sweet after he recovered from shoulder surgery at the end of last year to finish with a silver in the individual 100m and two bronze medals in relays at this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
He won the 100m gold at Rio in 2016 when he was a teenager and came with just 0.06 of going back to back in Japan only to be beaten by a fingertip by American megastar Caeleb Dressell.
“If you had of told me 10 months ago that I would break the World Record, I would have laughed,” Chalmers posted on Instagram.
“At that stage I was in hospital after having shoulder surgery, and just being able to swim again was my main goal.
“It’s been a long journey back! But I would not have it any other way, the challenges, sacrifices and bridges I have had to climb to get to this point make it all that more special.
“I thank you all for being a part of it, I especially thank my team, my sponsors, my family and friends who are with me every single step of the way, this is OUR World Record, not just mine!”
While Chalmers previously held the junior world record for 100m freestyle, this is his first world record at senior level.
Incredibly, Australians have set three world records in the last five months after Kaylee McKeown broke the 100m backstroke record at the Australian trials then Bronte Campbell, Meg Harris, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell obliterated the 4x100m freestyle world record to win gold in Tokyo.
In total, Australians now hold nine world records in the pool.
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