By David

Fortunately most swim meets pass by quietly and without incident. Occasionally though some event occurs that is frustrating, annoying and even distressing. When this does happen, I seldom see it coming. All of a sudden a peaceful, enjoyable swim meet is transferred into a battle ground of accusation and conflict. I would argue that my involvement on these occasions is almost always in response to the actions of others. I can seldom recall actually initiating conflict.

Normally a peaceful afternoon’s sport is shattered by someone, usually a zealous swimming official, deciding to have a crack at one of my swimmers. A few years ago, an incident with Auckland official, Jo Davidson, was a classic example. Davidson dragged two National Championship referees down to the West Wave Pool’s underwater viewing windows. She instructed them to watch my daughter, Jane, swim in the 200 meter breaststroke heats. “Watch this,” she said, “this is what you will disqualify her for in tonight’s final.”

I protested of course. Jo Davidson was sadder but probably no wiser and Jane won the 200 breaststroke final without being disqualified. After her outrageous behaviour, the fact that Davidson continued to have a stellar career as a national and international swimming official reflected nothing but abject shame on Swimming New Zealand. It’s hard to respect an organization that promotes an official guilty of that conduct. Christian Renford’s pleas for integrity and honesty sound pretty hollow when one of his officials cheats and gets rewarded.

My protest at the depth of the Kilbirnie Pool was an exception. In that case it was most certainly my initiative that caused the storm clouds to gather. At its shallow end the Kilbirnie Pool does not comply with the minimum depth required by FINA Rules. In fact the pool is bloody dangerous. Along with my $50 filing fee, I lost the protest. However, shortly after the Championships, Swimming New Zealand received a rap over the knuckles from FINA. Events, FINA said, held in the Kilbirnie Pool ran the risk of not being recognized by the world governing body. FINA’s judgement made the officials that discarded my protest look stupid.

In association with the Wellington City Council, and at a cost of what I’ve been told was $250,000, Swimming New Zealand altered the Kilbirnie Pool so that competitions could be held at the deep end of the main pool. I might have lost my $50 but New Zealand swimmers were safe. At the next short course National Championships the races all began at the deep end of the Wellington Pool. FINA’s rules had been satisfied in full. The risk of broken necks, grazed torsos, black eyes and worse had been eliminated.

Of course I did not get any thanks for initiating the change. Quite the contrary in fact. Chris Moller and Sue Suckling, the authors of the 2012 Swimming New Zealand founding document, called me and interrogated my motives. For thirty minutes Perry Moller Mason tried to prove that my Kilbirnie Pool protest was frivolous; founded solely on a need to cause trouble; a baseless distraction; proof that I was a malcontent hell bent on causing harm. I thought Moller was pathetically ignorant. If he got a kick out of questioning my motives; if he thought the history of my protest was more important that the safety of New Zealand swimmers, he was stupid and of no concern to me. Wellington was having to pay $250,000 to provide a safe pool and that was fine by me.

Or at least that’s what I thought until tonight.

Unbeknown to me the idiots that run Swimming New Zealand and the Wellington Swimming Region continued to run local meets from the pool’s shallow end. I told them it was wrong. FINA told them it was wrong. But when we weren’t there, when our backs were turned they used the shallow end of the pool anyway. The deep end was reserved for the National Championships when the troublemakers were in town. These people are disgusting. Genuine safety concerns were either neglected or by-passed in their obsession to prove me wrong.

Well last week their chickens came home to roost. You see last weekend the Wellington Short Course Championships were held in the shallow end of the Kilbirnie Pool. I understand one club had four swimmers hit the bottom of the pool. One of them, an eleven year old girl, had her front teeth smashed out – gone, her teeth lying on the tiles at the shallow end of the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre.  Wellington City Council, Renford, Moller and Layton take note – I paid $50 to warn you that competitive swimmers diving into the shallow end of your pool was dangerous and you let the Wellington Swimming Region do it anyway. In my view, that’s criminal neglect. And I hope you are made to pay in full measure. Another one of the injured, a ten year old girl, grazed her face during the start of a 200 meter breaststroke race. She swam on to achieve an eighteen second personal best time. Instead of delight, she burst into tears that mixed with her cuts and blood. She hadn’t stopped because she thought her coach and family would be disappointed.

Apart from writing this article to highlight the disgraceful management of New Zealand swimming, I feel powerless to do anything that holds the guilty accountable. I might go to the Small Claims Tribunal and seek the return of my $50 protest fee. Clearly my protest was valid. The changes made to the Wellington pool prove that. But even if I lose; even if the Tribunal rules that Swimming New Zealand can keep my $50, the publicity involved in taking Swimming New Zealand to court may prevent another smashed mouth, another disfigured face. It may also provide guidance on what recourse the harmed have from the Wellington City Council and Swimming New Zealand. Renford, Miskimmin and Layton are at the top. The buck for a little girls teeth and another’s scarred face stops with them.