SWIMMERS MAKE WAVES OVER FINA’S THREATS

IF modern sport is all smoke and mirrors, both literally and figuratively, the 1970s had something of the Wild West about it.

The terrain was rough and unsophisticated. Things were done on a whim. And, so it was that Kerry Packer tried to secure Australian broadcast rights for his Nine Network television channel.

“No chance”, said the Australian Cricket Board, preferring their cosy deal with the ABC.

A disconsolate Packer traipsed into the office of David Evans, his right-hand man. “The pricks, they wouldn’t even give us a look-in. Well, f**k ‘em, we’ll start our own.”

And thus was World Series Cricket begun, heralding coloured kit, day/ night matches, white balls, drop-in pitches and helmets, Packer reasoning that he wasn’t paying players to lie around in hospital.

Cricket was changed forever.

The story came to mind this week on the back of a curiously provocative tweet from Olympic champion Chad le Clos. He wrote of his disappointment at swimming’s reluctance to change, and its lack of innovation. It’s hardly Le Clos’ style to rock the boat, but it made sense the following morning when word emerged that several elite swimmers, superstar Katinka Hosszu among them, had filed a lawsuit against FINA, the international swim body.

Pushing aside the heavy legalese, the heart of the matter is FINA’S attempt to block a rebel professional swim league from starting up in Italy later this month. The International Swim League, the creation of a Ukrainian businessman, was designed to make swimming sexy and commercially appealing by creating a series of meets for 300 of the world’s top swimmers. Mixed-gender teams would compete with $2,1-million in the prize pot. Reflecting the changing demands of fans, athletes, broadcasters and sponsors alike, the competition would be action-packed, with fast-paced, spectacular entertainment at its heart. Think about it. Superstar male and female swimmers swagger across pool decks with magnificent torsos and tanned bodies. Throw in a top-rate competition. What’s not to like?

Yet, to most, they only enter the consciousness every four years, at the Olympics, before they drop back into the shadows.

It’s little different in South Africa where support seldom extends beyond friends and family, notwithstanding the outstanding swimmers SA has produced. An amateur mindset prevails, and even Olympic champions must make do with hand-outs.

Generating money relies on innovation, but in local sport ambition and imagination are in short supply. Years ago, Ryk Neethling proposed skins meets where big names could race for cash in winner-takes-all events. Swimmers could ham it up, you could add the requisite lights and lasers, bells and whistles and turn a regular meet into a compelling event.

Too bad nobody was listening: SA swimming remains a sleeping giant. Predictably, FINA has come down hard on swimmers, warning of Olympic exclusion for any participants in the new league. But they aren’t deterred, figuring that they deserve more than the 12.5% allocated in prize money from the $118-million earned by FINA in the last financial year.

“Very few swimmers make a living swimming, while FINA is making a killing,” grumbled US champion Michael Andrew.

The first shots have rung out. Little else is being spoken about at the world short course championships in China this week.swimmers are itching for change.

Will the suits be dragged kicking and screaming into the new age, or will they do nothing?