By Jon Tuxworth
Former Olympic swimmer Brenton Rickard has urged officials to avoid pushing the panic button by scrapping the polarising Winning Edge system after worse than expected results at Rio.
But he is adamant the option of training in a high-performance environment at the Australian Institute of Sport shouldn't be abolished completely.
Cate and Bronte Campbell carried high expectations into Rio which fell flat.
The legitimacy of the Canberra facility has come under the microscope, led by former AIS director Robert de Castella, after its scholarship program was scrapped and the big drop in athletes using it full-time.
Rickard said training with other elite athletes at the AIS was "exactly what he needed" at the peak of his career, which included 100-metre breaststroke world championship gold in 2009.
Brenton Rickard with his world championship medal for the 100m breaststroke in 2009.Credit: Lars Baron
But he warned uprooting athletes out of home isn't ideal for every athlete and should be treated on a case-by-case basis.
"The AIS was exactly what I needed as an athlete, but after five years there I certainly needed to be closer to home and family [in Queensland]," Rickard said.
"You can understand both sides but there should always be a place in our sport for the AIS, it's such a great facility and an opportunity for athletes to be in that high-performance environment.
"When I was there there was three main squads and once every few weeks we'd do sessions together or time trials.
"You'd have a laugh and a cheer, there was always real value in that even though we're an individual sport.
"It's about individual preference and that's why I think it should always be an option because there are people who would excel in it."
He added that mingling with elite athletes from other sports is a huge advantage the facility can offer, "one of the big values in the multi-sport environment, which you get when you go to an Olympics".
"When I was there there were [Boomers] Joe Ingles and Patty Mills in the basketball program and some of those sports you got to learn from.
"Different athletes have different thought processes, that's something the AIS generates and I always think it should be supported and hopefully attended.
"But there other great programs like St Peter's and Miami who pick up the talent through schools and develop them.
"I don't want to see those programs suffer, but there should be a place for the AIS as well."
The Winning Edge program has been slated for 2012 to 2022 and targeted a top-five medal tally finish for Rio and Japan in 2020.
It will fall short of that in Brazil but Rickard says it should be judged on its long-term merits.
"We [Australian swimming] are where we can be with culture and talent. We just didn't quite get the results but they were still better than London," Rickard said.
"You can't make rash decisions on one meet's return, high performance is so complex and needs to be looked at as a marker over a period of time.
"Over the last three years, our results are significantly better than the previous three years."
Several Australians failed to deal with the pressure of being pre-race favourite at Rio, most notably Cate Campbell after she missed medals in the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle.
Rickard knows from experience that it's a mental obstacle that can be difficult to overcome.
"The Australian psyche is we love being underdogs and it can be a challenge to be the front runner," he said.
"I know I struggled with it a bit after winning at worlds in 2009, the next year going from hunting to being the hunted was a strange feeling.
"It's about putting in place systems with the team to help manage expectations or deflect it from swimmers."