Of course I sent the previous Swimwatch story to the “The Crowd Goes Wild”. It would be inexcusably rude to hide public criticism from the target. I doubt that James McOnie cares whether David Wright thinks he has exceeded his sell-by-date. An ego as big as his is pretty indestructible.

I certainly did not expect a reply to my story. I thought “The Crowd Goes Wild” would do a Swimming New Zealand and meet every criticism with stony silence. Swimming New Zealand are experts at showing the cold shoulder. They can deny members their human rights, they can lie to the membership, they can pay themselves a fortune and charge the nation’s best swimmers to go to a world championship and through it all say nothing – no excuse, no reason, no apology, nothing.

I expected the same reaction from “The Crowd Goes Wild”. I was wrong. Yesterday I got a reply. Here is what it said.

“We love your passion David, however the Chiefs game was 3 days old by the time Monday’s show went to air. To expect us to cover a game that is 72 hours old is a bit unreasonable, considering we’re supposed to be a news show. Cheers.”

There are a couple of points that need to be made about their reply. First, thank you for the message. Thank you for the enthusiasm comment and thank you for the “cheers” at the end. I’m taking that as a sincere rather than an ironic farewell. I appreciate the effort taken to explain and communicate.

However there are two features of the reply that cause concern. First the claim that “we’re supposed to be a news show”. In the era of Trump there has been much discussion on the distinction between news and opinion broadcasting. The truth is many broadcasters deliberately blur the lines between news and opinion. The confusion allows participating media outlets to use selected factual news to support opinions and views they want to promote. At best “The Crowd Goes Wild” is one of these hybrid outlets. It is certainly far from a sport’s news channel. McOnie and Mulligan offer far too many opinions for the programme to ever be described as straight news.

We know for example that Mulligan “hates” Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. We know he supports the Hurricanes and the Breakers. McOnie’s adoration of all things Waikato is as well-known as it is tiresome. Almost every subject concludes with a one minute offering of the presenters’ opinions. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact part of the charm of the program is its high opinion content. It just means that their claim to be “news” is ridiculous. As opinion providers they should know better.   .

And so the claim of “news” status to justify ignoring the Chiefs and Highlanders result is simply not true. “The Crowd Goes Wild” is not a “news” show. At best it is a hybrid news and opinion mongrel. Which means, that the claim of “news” status to justify ignoring a rugby result journalists didn’t like, has no validity. In fact the claim to “news” status is as devoid of decency as those who made the decision to ignore the Chiefs’ defeat.

The second justification for the decision to ignore the weekend’s Super Rugby result is, “To expect us to cover a game that is 72 hours old is a bit unreasonable.” Like their claim to “news” status, this is simply not true. It is a lie. On Tuesday 19 February, the day I received “The Crowd Goes Wild” email, I watched the program to check on their 72 hour deadline. The show reported on ten sporting subjects. Of the ten there were three that were older than 72 hours. 30% of the items covered were outside the time limit I had just been told was the program’s measure of “unreasonable”.

First the show did discuss the Chiefs loss to the Highlanders. That game was now 96 hours in the past; so much for their 72 hour rule.

Second the show covered the young driver, Lawson, signing a contract with Red Bull. That happened in the middle of last week on Lawson’s 17^th birthday – 144 hours ago – double the 72 hour rule.

Third the show reported on the trials Team New Zealand had gone through to develop the successful foiling technology used in the America’s Cup. That “news” was first reported on the Stuff website on the morning of the 15^th February 2019 – 110 hours ago. The events it described occurred years ago. Either way the claim that anything more than three days is out-of-date is simply not true.

I am delighted “The Crowd Goes Wild” took the time to reply to my post. My delight is tempered only by the rubbish included in their message. Instead of making up excuses that can so easily be disproved they would have been better to simply say, “Oops made a mistake, sorry. We’ll sort out McOnie and move on.” That honesty would have immediately had me back as a viewer.

As it is their reply means they are not only bad losers, they are dishonest and stupid as well. Cheers.

PS: Since posting this article I attempted to extend to “The Crowd Goes Wild” the courtesy of advising them of my reply. I attempted to do this by posting the link to their Facebook Messenger page.  And oh dear me, the precious wallflowers at “The Crowd Goes Wild” appear to have blocked my contact.  I guess the original story of being bad losers is confirmed

For about four years I have been an avid fan of the Prime TV program, “The Crowd Goes Wild”. The program airs at 7.00pm each week night for half an hour. I enjoyed it because of its light-hearted look at sport in New Zealand and around the world. The presenters, Andrew Mulligan, Wairangi Koopu, Josh Kronfeld, Chris Key, Storm Purvis, Anna Willcox-Silfverberg, James Copland and James McOnie were genuinely funny.  For someone like me who has spent forty years working in sport, “The Crowd Goes Wild” was a breath of fresh air. It made light of the activity I had to take seriously most of the time.

But gradually, in the past six months, the shine of the program has begun to fade. For the past few weeks my cynicism has got so bad I now prefer to sit at my computer and write a Swimwatch story than watch the program’s tired half an hour. But tonight I thought I’d make another effort. At 7.00pm I sat down and endured another thirty minutes of “The Crowd Goes Wild” abuse.

Fault, it seems to me, is down to one man, James McOnie. In my opinion his fanatical and repetitive devotion to anything from Waikato has long since ceased being funny. Now he is simply and stunningly tedious and boring. At first his slightly crude jokes were funny. Now they have turned him into a dirty old man. His appearance on the show makes me feel slightly ill.

But their show tonight offered the final insult. It caused me to turn off the Prime 7.00pm button permanently. The one thing a professional career in sport requires is the character to accept defeat. In the words of Kipling

For years, as part of coaching champion swimmers I have drilled the importance of winning and losing well. I have coached national representatives from six different countries. None of them liked losing. That does not mean they were not gracious in accepting a bad result.

I had this thought in mind when I watched “The Crowd Goes Wild” today. You see Super Rugby began their 2019 season this weekend. The competition’s first result saw the team supported by “The Crowd Goes Wild” presenter James McOnie, the Chiefs, beaten by the South Island Highlanders. I was interested to see how McOnie would react to his precious Chiefs being beaten. I was sure he would be a poor loser. But how would his bad behaviour express itself? What would he do that would be an embarrassment to sport’s men and women everywhere. But what transpired was worse than anything I could possibly have imagined.

Minute by minute went by. McOnie discussed skiing, American basketball, rugby league and para swimming. But the first weekend of the nation’s national sport – not a mention, silence, nothing. Finally as the credits began to roll and the end of show music began to play McOnie mumbled something that few could hear about Super Rugby and that was it.

I have no doubt McOnie thought his childish silent treatment tantrum was hilariously funny. All those viewers poised to see him squirm had been denied. He’d given New Zealand rugby fans a two finger salute. Worse than that McOnie and his selfish ego had used a free to air television program to deny fourteen players from Otago their moment of recognition. Even worse than that by implication and association he has involved the Chiefs team in his display of bad sportsmanship. Teams get known by the company they keep. McOnie’s bad behaviour, by association, has become the Chiefs’ bad behaviour. The Chiefs must be appalled by this bad mannered supporter.

And because McOnie in a fit of spite decided the Highlander’s win would be ignored the performance of three other New Zealand teams was also ignored. A hard earned win by the Hurricanes in Australia was snubbed. The victory of the champion Crusaders over a rejuvenated Auckland side was disregarded and insulted.

McOnie might well think this is hilariously funny. In reality everything that is bad and rotten in sport was on display in McOnie’s “The Crowd Goes Wild” tonight. Sadly there is not much I can do about his repulsive behaviour apart from refuse to watch the program until McOnie has gone. Certainly that is what will happen. I can also urge New Zealand sports fans and “The Crowd Goes Wild” advertisers to withdraw their support. McOnie and his disgusting behaviour have forfeited the right to our support. New Zealand sport will be a better place when he has gone.

 A Tale of Two Cities & Two Sports

In October last year Bruce Cotterill, the Chairman of Swimming New Zealand (SNZ), was interviewed by the North Shore Channel magazine. Cotterill was asked about the challenges of being SNZ Chairman and the benefits of living on the North Shore of Auckland. His answers give a stunning insight into Cotterill’s personality. They also provide clarity about why swimming is a losing sport; losing members, losing income and losing performances. A few years ago Cotterill posted a quote on his website that said if you have a problem in your business stand in front of a mirror – you may see the problem standing in front of you. This Channel interview may be our Cotterill mirror moment.

And so let’s look at some quotes from the interview. First Cotterill had this to say about living on the North Shore.

The quote confirms that Cotterill is a right wing diehard. I doubt there is any risk Cotterill will not vote for the National Party, even if its leader does not know how to pronounce the word China. It’s China not Chouna. But it is not Cotterill’s reactionary politics that concerns me. The feature of concern is the moaning and whinging about the unfairness of Auckland’s democracy. Typical of people, like Cotterill, is looking for something or someone to blame when they lose. The last thing the Cotterill gang ever do is look in the mirror.

When Cotterill’s right wing candidate doesn’t win the mayoral election it’s the fault of the electoral boundaries. But the implied racism in his South Auckland comment is of even deeper concern. When he says, “South Auckland will always elect a Super City Mayor” that’s way too close for my comfort to saying, “Those Maori and Islanders have too much say in electing the mayor of North Shore”. If only North Shore’s pure white people had an election all of their own we could elect a proper mayor to look after our ethnically pure region. Cotterill needs to explain himself because all that sounds way too close to racism for my liking.

But, in my opinion, the whole comment conveys the thoughts of a loser. You would never hear a Mark Schubert or an Arthur Lydiard or me, for that matter, making an excuse like that. It just reeks of the idea that the cards are always stacked against us. We lose but it is someone else’s fault – in this case the brown people who live in South Auckland. Champions do not think that way.

And now let’s look at what Cotterill had to say about being Chairman of SNZ.

Here we go again – a Cotterill whinge. It is not South Auckland brown people that are the problem this time. It’s the popular sports of rugby, cricket, netball, rowing and yachting. What Cotterill seems incapable of understanding is that his job is to do something about lifting swimming into the rowing and yachting world. He seems to prefer standing around moaning about not being “one of the big sports” than he is about working to do something to change that. Once again his failure is someone else’s fault.

And just to make sure we don’t blame him for swimming’s disasters he trots out the old excuse that it is harder to be good at swimming than any other sport. As I say there is always a ready-made excuse when you are one of the Cotterills of this world. After all he says – “the top 16 in an event can be separated by less than one second. That doesn’t happen in rowing or yachting.” See how much harder it is for poor us. If only Sport NZ realized how hard we have it in swimming, they would pay us more than they give to those easy sports like rowing and yachting. For Cotterill it seems that last in a swimming race is better than a gold medal in yachting. That is rubbish of course. Just ask Russell Coutts or Peter Blake or Peter Burling.

Incidentally Cotterill’s comment about the top 16 at an Olympic Games being separated by less than a second is only barely true. At the Rio Olympic Games, of the 32 events swum, everyone except the men’s 50m freestyle had more than one second separating the top 16 swimmers. Cotterill’s comment is true but only by one event. As an excuse for the problems in swimming it is pathetic “fake news”.

Every time Cotterill opens his mouth he provides us with an insight into why swimming is so badly served by its leaders. Certainly with the attitudes shown in this interview I wouldn’t follow him to a Sunday school picnic let alone the Olympic Games. Mind you if the Sunday school picnic was in South Auckland I’d probably have to go on my own.

In My Opinion – Useless, Smug, Arrogant

Three sports stand out as being most influenced by the CEO of Sport NZ, Peter Miskimmin – Swimming, Cycling and Rowing.

Plenty has been said about Swimming New Zealand (SNZ). Over twenty years and at a taxpayer cost of $30million SNZ has not won a medal at an Olympic Games. By every measure the sport is in decline. Membership is down. Income is down. Results are down. People plead with me to look for and write about the positives. Here is an email I got, last week, from a SNZ supporter written from a prayer mat outside Steve Johns’ office door.

I’ve known the author of the email for quite some time. He always has been a sycophant to the rich and powerful but this effort at greasing up to those in power is exceptional. Exceptional but not alone. Recently, from New Orleans, I got a message that I should “Surround myself with positivity.” These critics should know better. Why?

Because the most cursory look at the Swimwatch web pages would discover many positive things written about swimming. I recommend the author read about the Bream Bay Swim Meet or the HBPB Championships, or Eyad’s swimming progress, or the contribution of Judith Wright and Norma Williams, or the Counties Championships.

In fact there is only one thing I don’t like about swimming. And that is the stuff that goes on behind the glass door of the SNZ Antares place office. The author of the email is on a prayer mat worshiping at that door. I want to take a hammer and see shards of SNZ glass scattered along the Upper Harbour Motorway. And with good cause. Is the author of this email saying it is right to charge New Zealand’s best swimmers $5,300 to represent the country at a World Championships? Does the author of the email think it is right that I should be denied access to a report on my coaching? I doubt that he does think those things, and many others, are right. Problem is he’s too busy sucking up to his mates inside the glass door to speak out about their disgusting behaviour.

That email says much about why we have wasted two generations of New Zealand swimmers and $30million. The email’s author must have heard the expression, “Bad people get away with bad things when good people say nothing.” He should know better than to ask me to join him as a SNZ enabler. It will not happen.

The second useless, smug and arrogant sport is Cycling New Zealand (CNZ). The non-selection of Hamish Bond this week is straight out of the SNZ playbook. Here is how the Stuff website reported what happened.

Bond breaks a national record, beats a world champion and offers to pay his own way and CNZ still won’t pick him. How does that happen? In my opinion it happens because bureaucrats in the CNZ Head Office decided Bond was getting too big for his boots. CNZ needed to take control. They have given all sorts of pathetic excuses for not selecting Bond but the real reason is to teach him a lesson – to show that rowing upstart who’s really in charge. It is pathetic. It should not happen but it is what New Zealand sport under Peter Miskimmin has become.

And the third useless, smug and arrogant sport is Rowing New Zealand (RNZ). RNZ is beginning to put together a list of administration disasters matched only by SNZ. RNZ had the best coach in the world. But now he’s coaching the Canadian national team. In moves similar to the treatment of SNZ coach, Mark Regan, RNZ made life so difficult for Dick Tonks he had no option but to leave. The real problem though was the same as the Hamish Bond saga. RNZ was scared of Tonks’ success. They saw his popularity as a threat. He had to go. Management of a Miskimmin sport is not about winning and losing – it’s about money and power.

The attitude of RNZ to athletes wanting to use their athletic ability to fund a university education further confirms their useless and smug arrogance. How dare a sport in New Zealand deny any New Zealander the right to a free education. How dare a sport penalise young New Zealanders for choosing to better themselves at a good American university. How dare they. As I have said through the post – useless, smug and arrogant. The table below shows a Television New Zealand report on RNZ’s education failings.

Alison Training in Windsor Great Park

This weekend was an anniversary of sorts. The United Kingdom Indoor Track Championships were held in Birmingham. Thirty eight years ago in 1981 Alison ran the women’s 1500m in the same competition. In those days there was no purpose built Birmingham Stadium. Alison’s championship was run on a very good wooden track built in an old aircraft hangar at RAF Cosford, a few miles down the road from Birmingham.

The result of the 2019 1500m championship race is shown in the table below.

1500 Metres Women Final

The good news in that result is that the winner and the fourth place runner come from Scotland. That is good news because, you see, thirty eight years ago Alison and I were living in Scotland in a village called Auchterarder, better known as Gleneagles Golf Course. I worked in Perth and Alison ran for Edinburgh Southern Harriers. I became a one-eyed Scot in the process. To see two Scottish women still proudly flying the cross of St. Andrew in the 1500m does my heart proud.

Alison had the best training ground in the world. She clocked many miles on the roads around Gleneagles Golf Course and an equal number of miles up and down their immaculate fairways. The surroundings were idyllic but the weather was not always kind. Alison would frequently return home with eyelashes frozen solid by the biting Arctic wind. We had to abandon track work one night because the track was frozen so solid that even Alison’s spikes could not break through the ice. I spent an hour on another occasion shovelling snow off the inside lane of a four-hundred metre track. By the time I got around new snow had replaced everything I had shovelled at the start. Nevertheless Alison did the session; 4×400 all under 60 – in the circumstances a bloody good effort.

Probably the best Scottish winter story had nothing to do with running. It happened the night we were invited to an Edinburgh Burn’s Supper. I had just bought a kilt for the occasion and was wandering around the house with my sgian-dubh (Scottish dagger) in hand telling Alison to, “Bring on the English.” In spite of running for Scotland and having a Scottish mother, Alison did not seem impressed with my patriotic fervour. By the time we set off for Edinburgh it was snowing heavily. On a back road, close to home, we slid off the road just enough that I needed to get out to push the car back onto the road.

As I pushed and strained the Scottish wind caught my kilt and blew it up around my head. Alison looked out the car window, smiled and said, “Bet you wish the English were here now.”

The winter Alison ran in the British indoor 1500m championship was a good one. Arch Jelley set Alison’s schedules from Auckland, New Zealand, and I supervised her training. The table below shows her training and competition through the 1981 winter. But before tell you about her season let me describe what happened in the 1500m British Indoor Championship.

Alison had a good heat and looked embarrassingly comfortable winning in 4:30.30. I was not at all sure things would be as easy in the final. Some very good runners had made it through, for example Gillian Dainty and Jane Colebrook. A work friend of mine had come to watch the final and asked before the race where I thought Alison would place. I said that fourth would be a good result.

As things turned out the race was run at a perfect pace for an endurance based athlete like Alison. The pace was firm right from the beginning. Alison was doing a good job of sitting in second or third as the 200m laps went by. Then with 200m left she burst out of the pack and had a five meter lead that she held to the finish. She said afterwards that she suddenly realised, “Oh my God there is only 200m to go. I’d better get cracking.” It certainly worked. Alison was UK National Champion at 1500m in a time of 4:16.70. Alison is quietly delighted that 38 years later her time is better than the winning time this year of 4:17.08.

Here is the record of Alison’s training and competition in that Championship season.

There are several features of Alison’s 1981 winter season that swimmers and runners today could well observe.

1. The first four weeks of the build-up averaged 102 miles a week (163 kilometres). The eight weeks full build-up averaged 96 miles a week (154 kilometres).
2. Through the racing and speed work period Alison averaged 60 miles (96 kilometres).
3. Alison won both Scottish national cross country championships and UK national indoor track titles. I am convinced that the two complimented each other. Cross country providing the strength to do well on the track, especially in that last 200m at Cosford, and track providing the speed to do well at cross country.

Swimmers wanting to relate these mileages to swimming should look on the running miles as swimming kilometres ie. 100 miles running is the equivalent of 100 kilometres swimming. The numbers suggest our best swimmers are not swimming enough distance to compete with the world’s best.

If the indoor 1500m times from 1981 and 2019 are the measure of “The Older I Get The Better I Was” that is certainly true.