Swim Ireland treading on calmer waters

The National Swimming Championships begin in Lisburn today aiming to end a time of turmoil for the sport. Declan Colley reports.

ROCKED by internal politics, its funding withdrawn by the Sports Council, snubbed by potential coaches and dogged by all manner of lesser controversies, Irish swimming has nearly drowned in its very own quagmire.

Despite all the wrangling, the setbacks and the frustration - not to mention the whole fiasco with the National Aquatic Centre - there is genuine hope that the sport, along with its national governing body Swim Ireland, is facing into a period of consolidation.

Chief executive Sarah Keane is confident Irish swimming will find itself “in a very different place” from that it has occupied for the past number of years.

Australian Barry Prime was considered a key man in achieving that aim. Prime was announced as performance director designate and the waters began to calm. That was until he decided against accepting the post in April.

“It would be fair comment to say that was a kick in the teeth for them,” Paul McDermott of the Irish Sports Council recalls, “but it happened and they just have to get on with it.”

Keane is very much of the same view, but has a positive slant on the affair.

“The appointment of someone of Barry’s stature was actually a good thing because not only did it give a greater international profile to Irish swimming, but it also gave a great lift to the swimmers and the coaches.

“Of course it was terribly disappointing that he decided not to come but what we need now is to find someone of equal standing and equal calibre and as quickly as possible.

“We have an awful lot of motivated people out there, but most of them are doing it on a voluntary or part-time basis and to help them move things on to the next level, we need somebody with the necessary leadership and direction in that regard.”

On top of other difficulties in recent years - not least the case where Swim Ireland had to go to court to establish their right to appoint Keane as chief executive - many smaller legal issues dogged the organisation. Some of these, as McDermott points out, are still ongoing.

“There are outstanding legal issues,” he says, “but they have nothing to do with the current administration and will be sorted out in due course. What is needed now from Swim Ireland is that they get in place a high performance plan and a high performance director, identify their athletes and put plans in place for them.”

He admits that the Sports Council had their difficulties with Swim Ireland, but says, these are in the past.

“We did have issues with them, but those are gone now and we want to work with them to develop what is a crucial sport.”

Once more he finds willing support from the chief executive.

“In fairness to the Sports Council,” she says, “they have been very supportive of us and have given us extra funding in that regard - not just for the performance director, but also in relation to performance swimming and we see that as a very positive step. Our relationship with them has moved 100% forward from just a year ago and I think, from our perspective, that’s another sign we’re moving in the right direction.

“The Sports Council is a strategic partner and probably our biggest stakeholder and while there were difficulties in our relationship with them and there were difficulties in the sport, we have moved on and we are in a very different place now. That’s positive for everyone.”

Keane believes there is a broad feeling that the sport is moving in the right direction.

“I started in May 2004 and once I came on board I got an awful lot of support from the board and members of the organisation and we’ve been working very much as a team since then. One of the things I realised early on is that we are a large sport, but with only a small number of people there trying to move it forward.

“If we are to do that we have to work as a team and the fact that at the AGM in April returned the same board as last year is a sign that people feel we are doing so.

“You have to remember that we have reverted back to a strategic plan which was originally adopted in 2002 and that was supposed to cover the period 2002-2006. Because we are behind in the implementation of that plan, we have gone back to it to get it implemented. The first appointment in it was my appointment and the next was the performance director and it was a very unfortunate situation whereby we had a signed contract with an individual and we then were very taken aback when he decided not to take the job. But we have picked ourselves up off the floor and we have just got to get up and get out there again and find someone.”

But the improvements are not confined to the boardroom. Lisburn this week will hopefully attest to that.

“Michael Williamson and Emma Robinson achieved A standards quite some time before the Athens games and while I know they were disappointed with their performances at the games themselves, we were proud of their achievements, particularly as they were the first Irish swimmers, I believe, since Michelle Smith to achieve an A standard. But we are also proud of all our top swimmers, the likes of Andrew Bree, Stephen Manley and Julie Douglas.

“But the thing is Swim Ireland has a much broader responsibility to swimming as a whole. Our role is not just looking after the performance swimmers, but also the people who just swim lengths for health and enjoyment purposes. The bottom line is that we need to better resource our organisation to better serve our members and that’s what we’re looking to do.”