Dopers get swim while golden girl misses out
CONVICTED dopers Sun Yang and Yulia Efimova are set to cash in at FINA’s new multimillion-dollar series while clean swimmers including Bronte Campbell won’t get a cent after being snubbed by the sport’s world governing body.
Of the 82 swimmers initially invited to the $5.5 million series, only seven Australians got the nod.
Bronte’s big sister Cate was invited along with Kyle Chalmers, Mack Horton, Jack McLoughlin, Emily Seebohm, Ariarne Titmus and Gold Coast’s Emma McKeon but plenty of others missed out.
The most glaring omission is Bronte Campbell, the Rio Olympic gold medallist who was a double world sprint champion in 2015 and currently ranked No.2 in the world for 100m freestyle in FINA’s own official rankings.
“I guess being a world champion isn’t good enough,” she said. Her exclusion is all the more extraordinary given FINA’s pledge to race the best against the best.
Only the 2016 Rio Olympic champions, 2017 world champions, world record-holders and swimmers currently world ranked No.1 are guaranteed invitations, meaning Sun and Efimova are automatic choices, but FINA is keeping the rest of the invitations secret, baffling swimmers.
American Michael Andrew, one of three swimmers suing FINA, was invited for two events even though he doesn’t fit the automatic criteria and is ranked third (50m butterfly) and fourth (50m breaststroke) yet Bronte, ranked second, was overlooked.
But it’s the inclusion of Sun and Efimova that will create the biggest stir.
Both have already served suspensions for doping offences and Sun, who was kicked out of Gold Coast pools in 2014, is back in the spotlight after it was discovered he escaped a second ban after using a hammer to destroy his own blood samples at a random out-of-competition test.
The hot-tempered Chinese freestyler has a history of problems with testers and only got let off because of a technicality, though the world anti-doping agency is reviewing the case.
The ISL is also going ahead with a $7.5 million series later this year but with one key difference: swimmers that have served doping bans will be excluded.