Aussie swim coach has been stunned by the sleding a the Olympic pool

SENIOR Australian swim coach Denis Cotterell says he has never seen so much “savagery” on the pool deck as the sport grapples with the doping crisis.

There has been a war of words on the pool deck following Mack Horton’s comments.

SENIOR Australian swim coach Denis Cotterell says he has never seen so much “savagery” on the pool deck as the sport grapples with the doping crisis.

Cotterell, who has coached controversial Chinese drug cheat Sun Yang, said although he supported the push to clean up the sport, the atmosphere at the Rio Olympic meet was disappointing.

Illegal drug use has dominated debate after 400m freestyle champion Mack Horton took a swipe at Sun Yang, questioning why he was allowed to compete at the Olympics given his drugs record. He was backed up by US swimmer Lillie King, who criticised the decision to allow convicted Russian doper Yulia Efimova back into the competition after initially being banned.

There has been a war of words on the pool deck following Mack Horton’s comments.

Cotterell said he supported Horton’s stand 100 per cent but questioned the amount of pool deck sledging that followed his statements.

He said there were varying degrees of breached to the doping policy and criticism of individual swimmers should be fair and measured.

Cotterell said the reaction to the drug allegations against former breaststroke world champion Samantha Riley and distance freestyler Kylie Palmer was vastly different to the comments being made on the Rio pool deck.

Riley was exonerated for taking a banned substance after coach Scott Volkers said he gave her a headache tablet which contained a banned substance before the Atlanta Olympics and Palmer tested positive to a banned masking agent and was given a reprimand last year.

He said the danger was hysterical reaction to drug allegations threatened to tear about the sport.

“We didn’t crucify Sam Riley and with Kylie everyone rallied around her to support her,” Cotterell said.

Yulia Efimova has also had her drugs past questioned.

“I fully support the move against drugs but I think we have to be careful.”

In the past Cotterell has been helping Sun Yang train and a large contingent of Chinese swimmers have been in Australia earlier this year using the same facilities on the Gold Coast.

Asked if he had spoken to Sun Yang since Horton made his comments, Cotterell said he had said hello at the pool but had not had a conversation about what had happened.

“But as you know he doesn’t speak English so I haven’t spoken to him about all of this,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cotterell said the Australian team was trying to rally from the shock failure of the Campbell sisters in last night’s 100m freestyle final.

But he said they were strong and he was confident Cate Campbell would bounce back enough to be competitive in the 50m freestyle.

She didn’t off to a great start this morning, baulking at the start and finishing third in her heat. She qualified 7th fastest for tonight’s semi finals while sister Bronte also qualified.

Originally published as Aussie swim coach has been stunned by the sleding a the Olympic pool