BREMERTON, Washington, January 29. ACCORDING to the Seattle Times, Olympic silver medalist Tara Kirk has stated that she plans on filing her official retirement documentation "as early as this week."
Her decision to leave the competitive portion of the sport does not mean that she is calling off her arbitration meeting with USA Swimming.
According to the article, "she will proceed with an arbitration hearing, set for May, to seek damages from USA Swimming, her sport's governing body, for establishing rules that appeared to have cheated her out of a spot on the Beijing squad last summer.
‘This whole thing isn't about the money,' she says. ‘It's about getting the right thing done. It would kill me if this happened again — to somebody else.'"
Just a short refresher for those that do not remember the multi-layered controversy from last summer. Soon after Swimming World broke the story that Jessica Hardy tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol, word came out from USA Swimming that the deadline had already passed to add new swimmers to the U.S. Olympic Roster.
Therefore, third-place finishers Kirk and Lara Jackson were bypassed for Kara Lynn Joyce and Rebecca Soni in the 100 breast and 50 free, who were already on the roster.
Later on, the testing facility admitted to entering Hardy's sample into the system incorrectly. While every other sample from Trials was expedited, Hardy's was not. That error, and the subsequent lack of oversight from all involved to pick up that one sample had not come back on time, caused USA Swimming to be put in an untenable position of having to make a decision either close to or past the deadline. The arbitration panel will make the final decision on whether USA Swimming did, in fact, have time to make a roster addition.
"It's like it's some test of my fortitude," Kirk told Seattle Times. "Like, 'Can you stomach dealing with all this?' Yes, I can. I worked really hard for this. Everybody works really hard for it."
Full text of Seattle Times article.
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January 29, 2009 That's a shame that she's retiring while still close to the top of her game, as I read that she stated two of her main reasons were the emotional effect of the Olympic team controversy, as well as her loss of sponsorships, which may have also been impacted by her not being on that team.
Even if U.S. Swimming ends up winning the legal battle, they may shoot themselves in the foot by losing the moral ground and losing one of their top elite swimmers prematurely. Submitted by: liquidassets
January 29, 2009 Nearly half a year has gone by and I STILL do not understand WHY this incident occurred in the first place. In retrospect, this SHOULD have been handled immediately rather than a disgusting sequence of dropping the ball. Submitted by: paddles
January 29, 2009 Its high time to quit crying over spilled milk and get on with the future of americans swimming fast. Submitted by: askme10
January 29, 2009 I doubt you'd be saying it like that if you were in Kirk's shoes... Submitted by: liquidassets
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