Not so very long ago I ran the business that controlled the learn to swim and competitive lane space in Wellington swimming pools. That’s the WRAC, Freyberg, BGI and Keith Spry Pools. We had the same involvement in two Hawkes Bay pools, Flaxmere and Greendale. Six pools is a lot of lane space.

Gary Hurring coached the team’s senior swimmers. He had access to the old 33-yard BGI pool in the early mornings and 25m at the WRAC in the afternoon. It was not a bad senior team. Good enough that most mornings I would get up early to sit and watch practice.

And so, without any access to exclusive 50m pool space how well did Gary’s coaching work? Not too bad is the answer. Michelle Burke won a medal in the Commonwealth Games. Toni Jeffs won a medal in what was then the World Short Course Championships and a medal in the Pan Pacific Games and Jon Winter, Mark Haumona and Sharron Musson represented New Zealand at various international events.

Never once, with all his impressive resume, did Gary come to me bitching about lane space. Perhaps that’s why his coaching record is better than Hollywood’s and his swimming record better than Clareburt’s.  

With this as background I was amused to read the fuss Gary Hollywood is making about not having access to enough 50m pool space before the Tokyo Olympic Games. Evidentially Hollywood told the NZ Herald that unless more long course space was made available he would throw his toys out of the bath and take Clareburt and himself off to a new bigger bath somewhere else in the world.

“Let them go”, I say. Ideas way above his station. It seems the coach has the perfect last name to describe his idea of his status in the sport. But, in my opinion, Swimming New Zealand needs to exercise extreme caution in how they handle Hollywood’s self-entitled importance.

Jan Cameron used to indulge in the same bad behavior. In Cameron’s case her threats were directed at Clive Rushton. In those days Clive Rushton occupied a position similar to that of Gary Francis today. Cameron’s goal was to convert New Zealand from a club-based decentralised structure to a centralised programme based on the North Shore. Eventually Swimming New Zealand succumbed, allowed Jan to have her way and so began the catastrophic 25 years of centralised swimming.

Gary Francis and Steve Johns have just rescued us from that dark place. Beware that a Wellington version of Cameron does not have similar plans with a new gender in charge. Lane space and a good swimmer have been used to push a policy change and a personal agenda before.

Of course, I do not know that’s what is going on here. However, there are enough danger signs to exercise caution. No matter how good the coach or the swimmer, the welfare of the sport comes first. New Zealand ignored that at their peril once before. We should not repeat that error.

Especially when you consider the fine coaches with far better records than Hollywood who have achieved remarkable feats without wanting to run the sport. Just consider the careers of Jelley, Lydiard, two Hurrings, Anderson, Robertson, Laing, Walker, Allen, Tonks, and a dozen others. Their humility is a lesson to us all. Their modesty could possibly be especially noted by Wellington’s latest Hollywood.

There is a second aspect of the Hollywood attitude that I find annoying. I’ve never had much time for prima-donnas who demand ever-improving facilities. Not when Peter Snell had no all-weather track and set his world 800m record and the current New Zealand record on a rugby field in Christchurch. Not when Rusty Robertson coached the New Zealand rowing eight to an Olympic Gold Medal on the Avon River in Christchurch. And especially not when the coach Gary Hollywood likes to hang his flag alongside, Duncan Laing, was forever modest in his demands for a double Olympic Champion’s pool space.

Hollywood clearly needs to learn from the man who coached 4 Olympic Gold Medals and 1 Olympic Bronze Medal, Arthur Lydiard, when asked what makes a fast track replied, “Fast runners”. Less Hollywood – more substance would be my advice.