Justice

Steve Johns, the CEO of Swimming New Zealand, was confident. He said that, “the 2018 Commonwealth Games will be a successful campaign.” “Swimming NZ is delighted with the team that has been announced. The strength of the swimming nations competing at the Games is very high but we are confident in the swimmers who have been selected and know that they are up for the challenge.”

Bureaucrats like Cotterill and Johns are full of high hopes. Peddling fake news is an everyday normal event. It is annoying that administrators like Johns and Cotterill are seldom held to account. But now the 2018 Commonwealth Games’ swimming program has ended. Was Johns’ optimism justified? Were the selected swimmers “up for the challenge”? Was 2018 the “successful campaign” promised by Steve Johns?

Before looking at New Zealand’s final result let’s consider what happened on day six.

There were three New Zealand swims in the morning heats on day six. Two of the swims (66%) were PBs. Three swimmers progressed to the evening finals.

There were four New Zealand swims in the evening session. One of these swims (25%) was a PB.

For day six, combining both sessions, New Zealand swimmers completed seven swims and recorded 3 PBs (42%).

The tables below show each swimmer’s personal best time and the time swum on day six of the Games.

Carina Doyle

Bradlee Ashby

Lewis Clareburt

Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay

New Zealand’s performance in the six days of competition (excluding Paralympic swimmers) is summarized in the table below.

The result does not make good reading; one bronze medal and a 27% PB ratio. The most lowly club team in the country would expect better than a 27% PB ratio. Any coach delivering that result regularly could expect to be out of a job. For an international team at a Commonwealth Games it is an appalling statistic. Not winning can depend on all sorts of outside factors. But a 73% failure to meet personal bests is entirely an internal team problem. Johns and Cotterill have delivered a catastrophic result. And it is down to them. In my view they played ducks and drakes with the selection of the team, they picked a terrible support crew, they screwed up the pre-Games camp, they approved an appalling pre-Games competition schedule and they persisted in a flawed training program. Their deficient decision making has been cruelly exposed and punished. Now it is time for them to take responsibility. It is time for justice.

Set out below are two tables that show how bad this Commonwealth Games swim team has been. The first lists every Commonwealth Games in date order from 1930 to 2018. The second ranks each Games in order of swimming success.

In the Games’ ranking table you can see that Edinburgh in 1986 was New Zealand’s most successful swimming result. That team won 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal. From that high the results gradually get worse until at the bottom there are five Games where the teams won only one bronze medal. Included in that trailing group is the current Gold Coast 2018 team. But there is a major difference between the disaster of 2018 and the other teams that only won one bronze medal. The difference is money. In 1934, 1938, 1970 and 1982 there was none of the millions, none of the SUVs, none of the flash offices and corporate plans that have gone into the 2018 fiasco. At a cost of $14millon Clareburt’s Bronze Medal is the most expensive medal in history.

When a disaster of this magnitude occurs it is necessary for those responsible to accept their blame and act with honour. It is time for Johns and Cotterill to accept that the buck stops with them – not with the regions, not the coaches, not the swimmers, not the clubs, but with them. The 2012 Constitution gave them great power. That power carries with it great responsibility. When the activity they manage does worse than ever before it is time for them to resign. They were told a thousand times that their policy would have this result. They were given an alternative plan. They ignored all that and their failure has been total. Whenever that occurs it is time for those responsible, that’s Cotterill and Johns, to go.

It is time for justice. Tomorrow Swimwatch will post a charge sheet of code of conduct violations that Cotterill and Johns should be asked to answer. They should stand trial for their behaviour and, if guilty, they should be asked to leave the sport. The hurt Swimming New Zealand has inflicted on three generations of New Zealand swimmers cannot be allowed to go unaddressed.