‘WE NEED TO BOYCOTT TITLES’
WORLD EXCLUSIVE SWIMMING ELITE THREATEN TO WALK FROM ‘UNFAIR’ WORLD CHAMPS
The best swimmers on the planet could stage a mass boycott of future world championships if the sport’s hierarchy persist with overloading them with major events in countries accused of human rights abuses and war crimes.
At the same time as health experts are warning about the undue pressures being placed on elite athletes following a spike in suicides since the start of the global pandemic, swimming’s world governing body, FINA, is bullishly ploughing ahead with plans to stage four world championships in four successive years.
This includes squeezing one into Qatar in early 2024 — just five months before the Paris Olympics — then proceeding with another in Russia in 2025, despite the outrage at Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Swimmers and coaches the world over have pleaded with FINA’s bosses to come up with a better plan, stripping Russia of hosting rights and moving the Qatar edition from 2024 to 2025, but their requests have fallen on deaf ears.
So now they’re planning to take matters into their own hands, by refusing to show up, even though FINA’s rulers have added a nasty qualifying clause for the Paris Olympics to effectively force competitors to go to the Gulf.
Leading swim nations, including Australia, have had enough of FINA’s bullying tactics and say they are serious about not sending their best teams to Doha.
“I’ve been very clear that I don’t see the point of having a competition then,” Australian head coach Rohan Taylor said.
“I know there’s aspects that I don’t understand but for me, looking at our athletes and the health and wellbeing of everybody and the financial capacity, I think we just need a breather just to get ourselves back into what we’re used to. It’s just been chaotic these last couple of years.”
England head coach Mel Marshall said she was also deeply concerned about the impact on the wellbeing of athletes forced to compete in a competition that could ruin their Olympic aspirations.
“This event does not have my support,” she said.
“It not happening would be a good thing for the welfare of athletes in my opinion.” Her view was echoed by Britain’s best swimmers, who are at the Commonwealth Games, where the issue is threatening to boil over.
Scotland’s Duncan Scott, who famously joined Mack Horton in protesting against Chinese drug cheat Sun Yang being allowed to compete at the 2019 world championships, tweeted: “Totally bizarre decision and one I hope gets
reconsidered! Surely just move it to 2025?” Scott’s teammate James Guy went even further, declaring: “I ain’t going.”
While countries can qualify swimmers for the Olympics through their own national selection meets, relay berths are decided by the results from the world championships held the previous year. So in a blatant bid to force countries to go to Doha, FINA has changed its own rules so only the top three finishers from the 2023 world titles, to be held in Fukuoka, Japan, will qualify automatically for Paris.
All the others though will be decided in Doha, which was originally chosen to host the 2023 championships but got moved back because of Covid disruptions.
Taylor said Australia would be forced to send relay teams to Doha if they still needed to qualify, but it would be left to individual swimmers if they wanted to go.
“We won’t be running any selection trials, that’s just too expensive and it’s not feasible,” he said.
“Depending on budget, we might send a small group of individuals, but it’ll be up to them if they think it suits their preparations for Paris.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if some went because they want that high level of competition … but my guess is most of our higher-level athletes would be less likely because their focus is going to be on Paris.”
Aussie swim great Rob Woodhouse, who won multiple medals during his career and is the uncle of Emma McKeon, slammed FINA’s decision as unfair and biased towards richer countries.
“It’s a shocking idea, particularly favouring the strong swim nations who can afford not to have their biggest sprint stars there as they’ll have qualified all their relays in Fukuoka,” he said.
“It also messes with US college athletes … and they almost certainly haven’t consulted with athletes, coaches and national federations about it.”
Several countries competing at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham confirmed they had not been consulted about FINA”s plans — but not for the first time.
FINA also hastily arranged a world championships in Budapest this year without consulting athletes, resulting in a partial snub with Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus among the absentees. Canada’s head coach John Atkinson said the sooner FINA reinstated the traditional calendar the better.
“It’s a complicated jigsaw puzzle at the moment,” he said.
“We look forward to getting back to what was considered a normal schedule of events prior to the pandemic.”
FINA told News
Corp it was aware that many athletes were opposed to the decision, but it was standing firm because it was a contractual issue.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to the sporting calendar.
“The 21st
FINA World Championships
Doha 2024 were originally scheduled for the summer of 2023, but the rescheduling of the
20th FINA World Championships Fukuoka necessitated a change to the Doha event dates.
“We appreciate the flexibility of the organising committee in Doha to delay until 2024, but it would not have been possible under the terms of the contract to host the Doha event after early 2024.”