By David

Even the most casual reader of this swimming blog will be aware of the genuine concern we have for the future of elite swimming in New Zealand. For months we have focused on the Cameron led program’s glaring shortcomings. Swimming New Zealand appears to be oblivious to its perilous condition. After a 2010 Pan Pacific Games that yielded not one medal in an Olympic swimming event and a Commonwealth Games without a win, Swimming New Zealand’s website unbelievably described the position as, “looking pretty bright for New Zealand Swimming”. New Zealand’s sights, they said, were set “on the London Olympics in 20 months with a real sense of belief and purpose.” The whole thing was surreal. It still is.

True, SPARC has picked up that something is not right and has decided to investigate the Cameron empire. I’m not at all confident their inquiry will yield much. For a decade Cameron and Swimming New Zealand have been able to peddle and sell their story of honey tomorrow. A whole country bought into that fairy tale. Main stream media abandoned any effort to be objective and published SNZ’s press reports without question or comment. Journalists working at Sky Sport and Radio Sport became advertising agents for swimming and it’s ironically named High Performance Program. Conning a couple of SPARC sleuths should be a breeze.

Already Cameron is setting the scene. A close friend of a prominent Millennium swimmer trains on my West Auckland Aquatics team. I’m told that Cameron’s spin on the SPARC investigation is that it is simply the result of two swimmers, Moss Burmester and Hayley Palmer, complaining to SPARC and that if SNZ loses its SPARC funding then it will be their fault. Once again, it’s not Cameron’s responsibility. It never is. In her mind, rebellious troublemakers are the problem. How spineless though, to blame a swimmer like Moss Burmester. SNZ “traded” off his success for years to secure their SPARC funding. And as for current swimmers, like Hayley Palmer, I am certain they have not been the source of recent extensive coverage in the mainstream media or of SPARC’s concerns. They have certainly never been the source of any Swimwatch story. My guess though is that this Cameron fantasy is the line SPARC’s investigators will be told. I can only hope they are as incredulous as I am.

I attempted to find out if there was any truth in the Hayley Palmer story by calling her father who is the CEO of Auckland Swimming. He was sympathetic to my concern but would not discuss his daughter’s swimming in any political context. I understand that. The last thing he wants is to compromise Hayley’s swimming career by talking to a pretty rebellious Swimwatch. While I was on the phone I took the opportunity to say that I had also heard a rumor at the December Auckland Age Group Championships that Hayley had been training outside the Millennium Institute coaching program. Was that true? Again, he was very reserved in his comment. He did confirm that Hayley had been swimming with Paul Kent prior to Christmas and that she is leaving for the United States next week, that she will be swimming there in preparation for the World Championships and that she is no longer swimming at the Millennium Institute although she remains a “gold-carded athlete”. What he did say was how grateful they were for the likes of Kent who have generously stepped up to help with pool space and other support. As it related to broader and more detailed issues, he declined to make any further comment.

Whatever the truth, I hope Hayley is not yet another recipient of some Cameron rough justice. I don’t know Hayley Palmer. I’ve never met or spoken to her. However I have watched her career with more than casual interest. Some Swimwatch readers will know that for several years I coached Toni Jeffs. In that time Toni swam in the Barcelona Olympic Games and won bronze medals in the Pan Pacific Games and what was then the World Short Course Championships. While Toni was swimming with me she won 15 New Zealand Championships over 50 or 100 freestyle and broke the New Zealand record for those distances on 16 occasions. She was clearly New Zealand’s best freestyle sprinter. I was not coaching her when she swam her final 50 freestyle fastest time in a National Record of 25:48.

The weekend I returned to New Zealand I attended the New Zealand Commonwealth Games Trials. I was delighted to watch Hayley Palmer break Toni Jeffs’ 50 freestyle National Record. Palmer already held New Zealand’s best time for 100 meters. The mantle of New Zealand’s fastest swimmer had moved to a new pair of shoulders. And Hayley Palmer was clearly a very fine recipient. Today without the complications of two per country and all that other SNZ smoke Hayley Palmer (25.01) is ranked 15th in the world over 50 freestyle and 22nd (54.68) in the world over 100 meters. Her 50 time is less than half a second away from the world’s top three and her 100 about one second from the same rank; gaps that, with good coaching, she could easily bridge. In every sense Palmer is the real deal; quite capable of winning the 50 and the 100 for New Zealand at the London Olympic Games. There was just one problem, and it was fatal. She swam in Cameron’s Millennium program. Ingram, the world’s best backstroke swimmer has the same terminal condition.

My discussion with Palmer’s father clearly shows that in spite of his reluctance to be drawn or provide detailed comment, there is substance to the poolside gossip. His concern for Hayley is obvious. It is equally understandable that there is very little detail available from him at the moment. Swimwatch will be watching these developments closely over the coming weeks. It seems pretty clear though that all is not well at Swimming New Zealand’s Millennium Institute. The cracks are beginning to show. After all, this is not any old club program where some turnover is expected. This program is made up of selected swimmers who are paid well to be members. When, like Moss Burmester, they start to express open discontent there is a problem. If they begin to leave, you can bet the house most of the others would get out too if only they had the courage or could afford to run the financial risk. It will be interesting to observe the spin from the Cameron empire as they scramble to save face over the departure of brilliant swimmers and Commonwealth medalists.

What is absolutely unacceptable in all this is the dictatorial control exercised by Cameron. Why should any swimmer’s career, income and life be dominated by this disagreeable Australian? It is certainly not a necessary component of winning an Olympic swimming race. Cameron is not the sole repository of swimming wisdom. In fact if her letters from New Delhi and television commentary are anything to go by her knowledge of modern swimming has some serious flaws. No one and certainly not Jan Cameron should be in a position to kneecap a swimmer’s career because they decide Cameron’s way is not for them. How on earth did Phelps and Lochte win all those medals without being told how to live their lives by Jan Cameron? Seriously, ask the question. Would Phelps and Lochte have won all those medals if they had swum at the Millennium Institute? I don’t think so. Cameron’s results demonstrate that she is not all that good at this game. If Millennium swimmers decide to find someone who does understand the elite swimming trade, New Zealand should financially support their decision and wish them God speed. My guess is that adult swimmers may be finding that being bought body and soul by the Cameron gang is not worth the cost of abandoning their Olympic dream. That is something to admire. That is something that could well earn its reward in the East End of London.

Much of Cameron’s behavior reminds me of a story I read about Mohammed Ali and an experience I had at a pool in Florida.

Ali was flying into Miami Airport. He arranged with the airport authorities to have his chauffeur park the car in a restricted area so he could avoid the crowds that gathered whenever he appeared. The chauffeur parked in the agreed zone and went in to collect Ali. When they came out a warden was giving Ali’s car a ticket. The chauffeur was incensed and started to argue with the warden. The warden yelled back, that just because Ali was the world boxing champion he couldn’t leave his car where he wanted. He was no better than anyone else. Ali gently put his hand on the chauffeur’s shoulder and said, “Just take the ticket. It’s more important to him that it is to us.”

Shortly after Rhi Jeffrey won her Olympic gold medal she came to the pool where I was the coach to begin training. She was talking to me when the Pool Manager, Joe McNeally, came out of his office and demanded a pool entry fee. I explained that Rhi was joining the swim team and would be paying training fees which included her pool entry.

“Has she paid her training fees today?” he demanded.

“She’s only been here five minutes.” I said.

“Well just because she’s an Olympic Champion she is no better than anyone else,” he screamed.

Rhi was about to get mad. I said to her, “Don’t worry I’ll pay the four dollars. It’s more important to him that it is to us.”

Whenever New Zealand swimmers get any good or pass twenty years of age Cameron can’t help exercising her authority by putting them down; by making the point that they are no better than anyone else. For years there has been a pattern of irrational control. You can’t have a drink. You can’t pass go without Cameron’s approval. The irony is, it doesn’t work. Have you ever noticed how many Cameron led teams have discipline problems? There is even a tree outside the Kiwi Paka motel in Rotorua called the “Jan Tree”. It’s still there. I’m told it got its name because Cameron hid behind it trying to catch swimmers sneaking into town. Goodness knows if it has any basis in truth, but all myths begin with at least the belief that they could be true, and swimmers believed this. Does that sounds like a trusting relationship? The message Lydiard preached above all others; above running the Waitakeres; above anaerobic sets; above everything was, “always trust your athlete.” Not a concept high in the Cameron coaching manual.

Eventually swimmers get fed up with all her control and retire or try to succeed somewhere else. Cameron cuts off the “dissident’s” funding and moves on to the next “promising” sixteen year old. The cycle of selling her honey tomorrow begins all over again.

“Well Cameron in this case it does matter. You see, it is more important to us than it is to you.”