 This horrifying quote was first expressed by Adolf Hitler. Sadly for humanity Hitler practiced his own counsel. Donald Trump does the same thing. Over and over again Trump told the world that the crowd at his inauguration was the largest ever. It wasn’t, but the evangelical bigots who support Trump were convinced.
I would never suggest that Steve Johns is as corrupt as Adolph Hitler or Donald Trump. He is no world leader. He does though have a bad habit of repeating himself in the hope that he will be believed. In both the emails he has sent to me he has repeatedly asked me to come to his office with an assurance that the facts about Swimming New Zealand (SNZ) are in his possession. To find out what is really going on in SNZ all I need to do is ask the one who really knows, Wonder Boy Steve.
With some justification I don’t believe Steve Johns’ open government story. On a dozen occasions I have asked Steve Johns for information. I have never received a reply. I imagine Steve Johns would hide behind the qualification that my questions needed to be delivered in person.
While snubbing me might be understandable, I am wondering how many other people he ignores. Failing to answer correspondence is not a known characteristic of good executive behavior. In fact failing to reply to an email or a letter is bloody rude. But does Steve Johns care? It seems not.
A week ago Athens’ Olympic Swimming Champion, Rhi Jeffrey, read about the financial plight of New Zealand swimmers selected to compete in the World Short Course Championships. Like many swimmers around the world Rhi was upset by the injustice of swimmers paying for themselves while SNZ staff have their costs fully funded. Rhi is not one to talk behind anyone’s back. She decided to write to Steve Johns to express her disappointment. This is what her email said.
| Dear Steve,
My name is Rhi Jeffrey and I am an American Olympic gold medalist from 2004 in Athens Greece. I had the pleasure of swimming in your country for two years before you were in charge so I have also had intimate experience with your organization. I must say, I was disappointed back then and am more disappointed (outraged even) at how it is being run now. I saw this story about you charging your athletes and not your staff to compete at World Championships. SHAME ON YOU. Your swimmers are WHY your staff have jobs to begin with. I have not heard of any country that requires their swimmers pay to attend Worlds. I see your staff member Amanda White tried to explain why you do such things and all I could see was more smoke and mirrors. She claims they have always paid for themselves in the past, not true. FINA reimbursement for travel has also been redacted from your cost analysis breakdown. To me, that seems like you are trying to hide something. On top of that, to attack the man who is trying to shed light on this atrocity by telling him it’s just a tirade is something out of America’s GOP playbook. He should be outraged. I am outraged. My American Olympian friends I have shared this with are outraged. I understand money doesn’t grow on trees, but is there any effort by SNZ to raise this money for their athletes? No. I own my own swim team sir, and if I had kids make a World Champ team I would be doing everything In the organizations power to make sure they didn’t pay a dime, they’ve earned it!!! I am going to continue to use my platform and voice to show to the masses just how greedy and vile your organization is being with this decision and your justifications after the fact. If you want to save face, I suggest you start looking in to how you can help these athletes attend this meet. SWIMMERS DO NOT MAKE MUCH MONEY! To ask them to do this is selfish and makes me think there is a hidden agenda here (what is the FINA subsidy for this meet for instance?). No wonder your swimmers have trouble performing, if I had to answer to you lot I’d swim slower on purpose. Search your soul (if you have one) and do what’s right for the athletes. Even if it comes at the expense of your staff. That’s how it SHOULD be. Your staff wouldn’t go anywhere if none of the swimmers could afford it. Why should they get the free ride. NOT RIGHT!!! Rhi Jeffrey |
I don’t know how often Steve Johns gets correspondence from Olympic Swimming Gold Medalists. Not often is my guess. You would think an email from someone as well known in international swimming circles as Rhi would deserve a reply. I would hope that anyone who writes to the CEO of SNZ would receive the courtesy of a reply. Not this CEO it seems. Certainly Rhi is still waiting. Steve Johns’ behaviour is unacceptable and rude. I would be appalled if Cotterill allowed his CEO to get away with failing to reply to correspondence. There is no excuse for crass bad manners.
Why does Steve Johns fail so often to put things in writing? Why does he insist on meetings in his office? Why does he not reply to Rhi? I think there is a reason for all that. I think he is one of those people who wants as little as possible to be in writing. If it’s verbal, Steve Johns feels safe. He can spin it later anyway he wants. If it is in black and white the room for spin is far too restricted for Steve Johns liking. That’s why he doesn’t reply to Rhi. That’s why he wants me to sit in his office. In my opinion he is as shifty as all can be.
The problem now is that many of the world’s best swimmers, people like Rhi, are convinced that the CEO of SNZ is mean, rude and a coward. It will be interesting to see whether Steve Johns ever gets around to sending Rhi a reply. I hope he does. Failure to do so is seriously damaging the reputation of New Zealand swimming around the world.
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