THROUGH THE GLOOM A BEACON OF LIGHT

This weekend hasn’t been the best for Swimming New Zealand. After ten years of appalling decision making the sport’s chickens are coming home to roost. The table below shows the qualifying criteria for next year’s Commonwealth Games. The table also shows the winning time at this weekend’s trials in Auckland.

So what does the table tell us?

Well first and most obviously no one qualified. I’ve been going to New Zealand trials since 1989 and it’s the first time I’ve seen no one swim a qualifying time. Take a bow Swimming New Zealand. In the 28 years I’ve been at New Zealand trials you have managed a first for the sport. In a gold mine of sporting achievement you have unearthed a real nugget. You have ruled over complete failure; total and absolute destitution.

And second, besides not qualifying, the Board have managed failure so well that the average gap between the performance of the trial winner and the qualifying time is a stunning 4.1%. In a 100 metre race 4.1% is about two seconds or four meters. That is a performance way better than just losing. That’s a real hiding. The Board of Swimming New Zealand has done something superior to any Federation in the world. They have lost better than any of us could have imagined; gold medal losers; at last a podium finish.

And third, I have read comment that the West Wave pool must be old and slow. That’s not true. The pool is not particularly well managed but as a racing facility it is blameless. At this meet the announcer, the organization and atmosphere were actually very good. The problem is the carpenter not the tools.

You would think that in the face of this trial’s disaster a pall of gloom would hang over the sport. But, it appears, every cloud has a silver lining. Because there, lifting our spirits and providing hope came the news that Alex Baumann was leaving High Performance Sport New Zealand. That is the good news. And the really good news is he is going to work for the opposition. He has joined Swimming Australia.

In spite of Paul Collins empty rhetoric that, “Under Alex’s leadership our high performance system has gone from strength to strength,” it is hard to escape the feeling that a rat is fleeing the sinking ship. So what are the facts of Baumann’s five years guiding the fortunes of elite swimming in New Zealand?

First, and most important, Baumann promoted and encouraged the policy of centralised training based at the Millennium Institute. In spite of the overwhelming evidence that the sport was failing Baumann demanded allegiance to the principle of single site elite preparation. And what were the results of Baumann’s obsession?

Well, when he arrived in 2012 Swimming New Zealand had three swimmers ranked in the world’s top ten – Boyle, Snyders and Kean. When Baumann left in 2017 no New Zealanders were ranked in the world’s top ten.

When Baumann arrived in 2012 Mark Regan was the National Coach. In five years Baumann approved the appointment of eight other national squad head coaches. That’s right, eight coaches of the national High Performance program in five years. And at the end of it all Baumann fled to Australia leaving the program’s apprentice coach in charge.

And, of course, the crowning glory, in the last Commonwealth Games’ trial before Baumann arrived thirteen New Zealand swimmers qualified to swim in the Games. In the first trial, after Baumann’s five years, no swimmers have qualified to swim in the Commonwealth Games.

In Baumann’s sport of choice, swimming, his New Zealand legacy has not been good.

I do hope Baumann brings the same level of achievement to Swimming Australia. I hope he successfully transfers his passion for centralized elite training. I look forward to hearing how the two Campbell sisters are getting on preparing for life in a Canberra Institute of Sport twin-share dormitory. And most important of all I look forward to the revolving door of new foreign Head Coaches about to lead the Australian program. Can Baumann improve on his New Zealand standard of eight head coaches in five years? We are about to see.

But back to New Zealand – what does Miskimmin have planned for Swimming New Zealand’s future? Sadly I think there will be little improvement. Michael Scott the ex-Chief Executive of Rowing Australia has been appointed to replace Baumann. What is it with this obsession New Zealand sport has for carpet-bagging foreigners? In this particular case there is an able alternative. Peter Pfitzinger, the deputy CEO of High Performance Sport New Zealand should have been promoted. He is an American but he is no carpet-bagger. He has lived in New Zealand since the mid-1990s. He was a hugely successful two time American Olympic marathon runner. He is married to Christine Pfitzinger who comes from Hamilton and successfully represented New Zealand in middle distance athletics. Compare that background with the families of some foreign imports who left me with the impression that they couldn’t wait to get out of here; back to Australia, Spain, the United States or Canada.

But there is good news coming out of this weekend’s Commonwealth Games’ trials and Baumann’s flight to Australia. New Zealand swimming must have reached the bottom. This has to be as bad as it gets. There is no further down to go. Which means, of course, from this point on things can only get better.