{"id":420659,"date":"2020-03-04T03:28:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T10:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=420659"},"modified":"2020-03-04T22:47:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T05:47:36","slug":"bill-sweetenham-calls-on-world-swimming-to-rise-up-and-banish-finas-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/bill-sweetenham-calls-on-world-swimming-to-rise-up-and-banish-finas-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Sweetenham Calls On World’s Swimming Feds To Rise Up And Banish FINA’s Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Sweetenham<\/strong>, International Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Coach<\/a> and mentor to generations of champions and coach leader, has called on national swimming federations and the worldwide swimming community to rise up and overthrow FINA and the man at the helm of the international federation as its director since 1986, Cornel Marculescu<\/strong>, in the wake of \u00a0Sun Yang<\/a><\/strong>‘s eight-year ban.<\/p>\n

The four-times Australia head Olympic coach and boss of the Britain swim revolution in the first decade of this century, Sweetenham urged FINA’s leadership to submit to a review and reform process back in 2014.<\/p>\n

His call followed FINA’s awarding of its highest honour to Vladimir Putin on the eve of the Russian state-supported doping crisis and at a time when Russia had the worst record of positive tests among all members of FINA. \u00a0Leading into the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, the hosts Russia had more than 20 cases on the books in just seven years in aquatic sports.<\/p>\n

Sweetenham was backed by the World Swimming Coaches Association<\/strong> and its domestic peer bodies such as ASCA in the United States and ASCTA in Australia. The Australian and the requests of coach-representative bodies speaking for more than 20,000 members worldwide were ignored. To this day, Sweetenham has not even had a polite reply from a FINA top table that includes former Australian international Matt Dunn<\/strong> acknowledging his open letter.<\/p>\n

Now Sweetenham says the time for \u00a0asking FINA to consider reforms is over after the federation departed from the neutral stance a WADA-Code signatory might have been expected to have taken in any challenge from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)<\/strong> to a decision involving an aquatic sports athlete in favour of standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a legal process at the Court of Arbitration for Sport involving the most controversial swimmers in history, Sun Yang. FINA took its stand after its Doping Panel had spent the bulk of a hearing report in January 2019 revealing startling details of an acrimonious anti-doping test vision to Sun’s home in September 2018, only to conclude that the misdemeanours described did not merit a penalty, just a caution.<\/p>\n

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Sun Yang – Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant<\/p><\/div>\n

WADA turned to CAS to overturn the FINA decision and, after a November 2019 hearing – and on the back of his 2014 doping positive – Sun was handed an eight-year ban, announced last Friday. The swimmer and his legal team have announced that they will appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal<\/strong>, which has a last say in certain narrow aspects of CAS cases, such as rights and procedures, under the laws of Switzerland, home to the CAS, FINA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).<\/p>\n

Sun, three-times Olympic champion, hails from China, the nation with the worst historic doping record of any barring the German Democratic Republic<\/strong><\/a> from a time when State Plan 14:25 won the day and never resulted in a single positive test despite the systematic use of steroids and other banned substances for the best part of two decades on FINA watch. \u00a0Says Sweetenham:<\/p>\n

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\u201cTime has run out for any consultation or compromise.\u00a0FINA [leadership] must be replaced immediately and prior to the Olympics. National organisations, led by their individual presidents, must show and display responsible character and leadership in forcing this issue. It cannot and should not occur again where athletes are betrayed by this organisation [FINA]. Individual national sporting bodies must honour the athletes and coaches they represent and remove any prostitution or hidden quid pro quo beneficial trade-offs.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Bill Sweetenham – ISHOF Honor Coach – Photo Courtesy: ISHOF<\/p><\/div>\n

In comments to The Australian<\/a>, he added:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is time for justice and it must be taken as it will not be given.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sweetenham’s comments coincide with\u00a0Melbourne University Sports Law Professor Jack Anderson<\/strong> telling the Australian Daily Telegraph that Sun\u2019s case was complicated and raised questions about FINA\u2019s handling of it and the role of those around Sun, as raised by Swimming World in this commentary.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the unanswered question in all of this, the role of the entourage,\u201d says Anderson.\u00a0\u201cBut the difficult thing is, as far as FINA is concerned, is that when they instigated this it was done in a narrow way.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWith FINA, they are in need of major governance reforms, the commercial element of it and how they deal with their elite athletes is important as well as the integrity stuff.\u00a0It\u2019s not difficult, (world) athletics had to do it so the model is there but you have to have the will to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

FINA is built to last, however<\/strong>: a system of universality grace-and-favour means that a small nation among the 206 members of the international federation, has precisely the same voting power as the United States, Australia and the other 30 or so nations that have world-class swimming programs. The vast bulk of voting nations have no world-class swimmers but they receive subsidies and the same benefits of the bureaucracy of the sport as the leading nations.<\/p>\n

Unless the federations of those leading nations rise up alongside the athletes who have been left to do all the talking of late in the sport’s Pro revolution involving the International Swimming League<\/strong>, then little or nothing with change in the way FINA has been run for decades, Sweetenham suggests.<\/p>\n

That the international federation’s monopoly of the sport is on its last legs is not in any doubt.<\/p>\n

Legal action by the ISL and a class action by swimmers led by Katinka Hosszu, Tom Shields and Michael Andrew in the United States<\/a> currently underway and aimed at ending FINA’s grip on swimming was the second big challenge to FINA in the past two years.<\/p>\n

In December 2017, the European Competition authority of the European Union handed down a ruling that effectively means that sports federations such as FINA must \u00a0change rules that seek to or actively do grant themselves rights to decide where and in what circumstances swimmers may compete and earn their living. The ruling was applied to the International Skating Union after a challenge from Dutch skaters who had been prevented from competing, under threat of suspension, at an event for money where the competition was not in the control of the ISU but held under the regulator’s rules. The ISU was told to change its rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The judgment came with a footnote: should the European authority receive any similar complaints in other sports, the relevant authority would be sent the same note: change your rules.<\/p>\n

With FINA on the ropes and the first ISL season having unfolded with the support of many of the world’s leading athletes and to widespread acclaim, focus now turns to domestic federations linked at the hip to the international federation. It is extremely rare in the history of swimming governance to find national federations opposing FINA’s leadership, the shiny suits saga of 2008-09 a standout exception when United States Swimming successfully lobbied fellow member nations to vote for non-textile garments to be banned, albeit on the back of a campaign by leading coaches and media, this author and SwimNews<\/em> having been at the forefront of that argument.<\/p>\n

Now pressure is being brought to bear on those national federations. The Australian’s Wayne Smith<\/strong><\/em> points to the difficulty of the task ahead when he writes:<\/p>\n

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“Although Swimming<\/b> Australia<\/strong><\/a> chief executive Leigh Russell<\/strong> has indicated she intends speaking to her international counterparts in the near future, it is almost certain Sweetenham\u2019s call to arms will go unheeded.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

It was 2014 and the 12th of the 12th and way past the eleventh hour when SwimVortex published an article under the headline: “Sweetenham: If The FINA Cap Fits, Wear It \u2013 Otherwise, Speak Up For The Sport You Want\u201d<\/em>. The article outlined the many reasons why this author felt that FINA was a failing organisation failing athletes and its other major stakeholders. In\u00a0the article, Sweetenham urged national federations to stand up for their athletes and the sport of swimming in the face of “the FINA farce”. [If there is a declaration of interest to make here, one is happily give:\u00a0The article followed my resigning from the FINA media commission in the face of what I opined was a lack of action and response to any substantive issues raised by experts the leadership simply used as a masquerade for credibility but ignored when it suited]<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Three days after that December 12, 20-14, article, USA Swimming’s leadership issued a statement backing Sweetenham’s arguments but none of that ever translated to any significant moves within FINA. That the USA, the world’s No 1 nation, could not get past the system and influence the jury, change the status quo, when it came to the significant changes seen widely as critical to the swimming’s betterment spoke, said Sweetenham, “both to the strength of a FINA Constitution set up to self-protect and the unwillingness of leading swimming nations to breakaway and force change”.<\/p>\n

Smith today opines in The Australian<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“The International Olympic Committee<\/a> would refuse to accept any breakaway swimming<\/b> body, arguing that any change demanded by the global community would need to be worked out within the existing FINA structure. And that means Marculescu and FINA will continue to thumb their noses at their critics.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Vladimir Salnikov, of FINA – Photo Courtesy: Maria Dobysheva<\/p><\/div>\n

Smith adds: “Marculescu is protected by a voting system that allows smaller countries which have no swimming<\/b> history and no skin in the game in terms of being affected by drug cheats to support him. FINA is always able to rely on great swimmers such as Russia\u2019s Vladimir Salnikov<\/strong>\u00a0[1980, 1988 Olympic 1500m freestyle champion for the Soviet Union – now a member of the Bureau and head of the Russian swimming federation<\/em>] or South Africa\u2019s Penny Heyns<\/strong> [1996 Olympic 100, 200m\u00a0breaststroke champion – now head of the in-house Athlete’s\u00a0Commission with a seat at the top table of FINA<\/em>]\u00a0to lend it legitimacy, but in many cases it is almost as though Eric the Eel<\/em>\u00a0[so named by this author at Sydney 2000 after he, Eric Moussambani,\u00a0raced in the 100m freestyle for Equatorial \u00a0Guinea at around the space of Ian Thorpe over 200m]<\/em> has retired from the sport and become a FINA Bureau member.”<\/p>\n

Salinikov, as head of the Russian swimming federation, was reported to WADA in 2016, after accusations that he had been present when two teenage Russian swimmers had been told that they would not be punished if they told who had supplied the EPO blood booster they had tested positive for in 2009. The doctor responsible was called in to account by Salnikov and team, before a local authority figure intervened and called an end to any further investigation. The case ended there, the two positives did not get reported to WADA and the WADA Code was broken. All of that was reported to WADA and FINA. To this day, no action has been taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cPuppets,\u201d is how Sweetenham describes all the folk cited by Smith, adding.<\/p>\n

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\u201cShould Marculescu quit? About 32 years ago would have been nice. I tried for years, along with John Leonard<\/strong> (the long-time director of the American Swimming<\/b> Coaches Association and founder of the World Swimming<\/b> Coaches Association) to get rid of him but he just hung on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which explains why none of them ever got a reply when they called on FINA to submit to a review and reform process.<\/p>\n

Sweetenham’s March 8, 2015<\/em>, letter to FINA in full:<\/p>\n

Use by Date? \u2013 By Bill Sweetenham<\/h3>\n
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Bill Sweetenham – Photo Courtesy: SWTV<\/p><\/div>\n

I have listened to the comments by many credible and professional experts on their view about the FINA organisation. \u00a0These are comments from people who have greater credentials, knowledge and experience than I do.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

One cannot be more impressed with those who are speaking out. \u00a0Before making my observations it is important for me to acknowledge that history will indicate that FINA has achieved much good for all concerned in its long history. \u00a0However, like all businesses and organisations, the system unless it faces modernisation of strategies within the complexities of improvement or change is soon left with its stakeholders and customers struggling to understand the future and opportunity for the organisation to maintain its strength.<\/em><\/p>\n

The corporate world, the armed forces and the sporting world have learnt that continual evolution and a requirement for improvement, visionary leadership and change is tied to constant evaluation. \u00a0Audits, reviews and performance analyses all play a part in designing strategies and success for their future and hopefully successful operation.<\/em><\/p>\n

In sport and in particular, Olympic sport every successful nation has the opportunity to review and address improvement every four years as a consequence of their own Olympic performance in terms of successful strategies and organisation. \u00a0At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia learnt across many sports that change was happening and coming in many different formats. \u00a0The sports which had continued success on the international scene from Australia as a result of the Sydney Olympics learnt that sport must become an entertainment industry as much as a sporting culture and organisation.<\/em><\/p>\n

The challenge, of course, for sports that learnt this lesson was to stay true to their core values while addressing improvements and change. \u00a0This is not an easy thing to do. \u00a0Many a head coach has lost their position due to the perceived under-achievement of their nation\u2019s Olympic team. However, very few national CEOs have endured the same outcome. Only the head coach is held accountable and responsible, quite often for environmental or leadership issues beyond their control.<\/em><\/p>\n

Society across all facets of life has changed significantly in the last 15 years. \u00a0The coaching and management of young men and women has had to address both cultural and social change in the modernisation of applied athlete management and technical coaching of the individual. \u00a0The 4-year audit of the Olympic Games shows that the performance and accurate decision making is a consequence of a very complex period of change and improvement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not just our sport of swimming, but many sports have moved forward with new technology and application. \u00a0At least partly because of this strategy, I have been involved with coaching successful athletes at every Olympic Games since 1976. \u00a0In doing this, no two Olympic Games have ever been the same and no two athletes have been the same. \u00a0The coach must be visionary in addressing performance needs and apply strategies of improvement from one Olympics to the next. \u00a0For young coaches in today\u2019s world, they are going to require enormous amounts of assistance and support in their vision of what the successful coach and winning athlete look like in 2024. \u00a0It certainly will not resemble what we see in today\u2019s world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Given the facts and opinions that have been published recently, it certainly would not give the \u00a0young coach or the winning athlete a feeling of confidence that we are being led into the future by an organisation that can be trusted or respected. \u00a0In my younger years of coaching, particularly towards the end of the 70s and early 80s, we were told that we were simply not good enough as coaches as the East Germans were dominating swimming and not long after, the Chinese did the same.<\/em><\/p>\n