Gina Rinehart bombshell drops before Swimming Australia’s D-Day

Swimming Australia is in free-fall with Gina Rinehart’s telling move exposed before the sport’s special crisis meeting.

D-Day has arrived for Swimming Australia with the organisation facing expulsion from world swimming.

With the governing body heading into a special general meeting on Friday, the sport has been rocked again by extraordinary reported claims surrounding Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart.

News Corp first reported Rinehart’s decision to step away from funding the governing body — to instead focus on payments given directly to individual athletes — has created a gaping hole the sport has not been able to recover from.

It was revealed in August the mining mogul has pumped a staggering $60 million of her estimated $37.1b fortune into various Aussie Olympic teams, including swimming, volleyball and rowing. It is no secret the Australian swimming team has always been her darling.

She was poolside at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Japan in July as the Aussie team blew the Americans out of the water with 13 gold medals.

Aussie star Shayna Jack made a special thankyou to Rinehart on the pool deck after the Aussie 4x100m mixed freestyle relay team won gold.

“We couldn’t be prouder and also just to have Gina in the crowd supporting us, that’s amazing,” she said on Channel 9.

Rinehart and her Hancock Prospecting mining company is reported to have ceased all payments for the Diamonds after she sensationally walked out on Australian Netball following the sport’s $15 million sponsorship storm.

However, new details of her expanding sponsorship program have now been revealed by Code Sport with 92 elite swimmers now receiving funding through the Hancock Prospecting Swimmer Support Scheme

Gina Rinehart with Australian swimmers and Swimming Australia head John Bertrand PICTURE: supplied

The dark side to Rinehart’s switch to focus on financially supporting individual athletes is that Swimming Australia has been left with a gaping hole of a $7 million sponsorship short fall since Rinehart’s decision to quit on the governing body two years ago.

The 69-year-old’s pull-out means Swimming Australia’s sponsorship revenue has fallen from $10m per-year to $3 million per-year.

It is just one of several shocking revelations that have rocked Swimming Australia as it heads into Friday’s meeting.

According to the report, Rinehart took issue with what she claims is a lack of transparency surrounding her financial contributions ending up in the hands of individual athletes.

It has been reported Rinehart was made aware that at least one athlete had been unable to access a financial support payment. Swimming Australia has responded by saying the situation was a mix-up with the swimmer failing to submit an invoice.

Despite her money being the sport’s lifeblood in recent years, it has been suggested Rinehart has repeatedly been denied a spot at the table in Swimming Australia board meetings — or having a meaningful voice among the bodies’ powerbrokers.

Kyle Chalmers and Gina Rinehart.

Those voices will on Friday thrash out major reform to shake up the sport at the special general meeting.

Swimming Australia called for the meeting in August when World Aquatics found the organisation was violating the global swimming body’s constitution.

Swimming Australia was given 90 days to get its house in order or face expulsion from major events — potentially leaving Aussie swimmers to compete under a neutral flag at international events.

World Aquatics has demanded change at the top of Swimming Australia with suggestions swimmers themselves do not have a say in the governance of the sport.

The Swimming Australia constitution changes demanded by World Aquatics includes a move to make the organisation “more representative and inclusive of its athletes”.

World Aquatics is also reported to have concerns about the way the sport has been run in recent years as a result of a high turnover of directors and senior staff.

Swimming Australia has had four different chief executives since 2017.

A failure to reach agreement on constitution reform on Friday will see Swimming Australia tip its toes over the edge of anarchy.

— You can read the full details of the claims surrounding Rinehart in The Courier-Mail