The Top 20 Most Significant Swimming Stories Of 2016: #18 – The Swimming Selfie

SwimVortex continues a countdown of the most significant swimming stories of Olympic Year 2016. 

We started with the heights of Katinka Hosszu and then considered the Canadian Comeback. Today, we turn to the opposite of progress in the pool, or in other words, the swimming selfie, poorly proportioned priorities and the art of talking to oneself. This has been a year in which FINA’s refusal to engage with key stakeholders in swimming has highlighted cracks in a system that has failed on some fundamental levels, including:

a lack of recognition that the sport is growing up and professional athletes will want their own representatives – not those hand-picked by a blazer here, a boss there – to be at the top table arguing for the things that matter to the key asset of the sport: swimmers a refusal to even acknowledge let alone engage with coaches and athletes and others in favour of a call for the international federation to submit to independent review of structures and finances so that swimming is run for swimmers and can grow in that spirit of service not self-service in office a failure to give experts, commissions and committees a free reign on the agendas they wish to set for the betterment of the sport (not the betterment of themselves), without ‘guidance’ from on high where that simply means ‘politics’ not wisdom. No 18 – On Lifestyle-Support, Self-Servers, Self-Service & Serving Selfishly

(L-R) Fanny Teijonsalo of Finland and Javier Acevedo of Canada race in the mixed relay at world s/c titles in Windsor – by Patrick B. Kraemer

One fine day, Georges Kiehl, former French international and a man who has poured good will and effort into promoting the best of swimming for many a long year, will get a prize for perseverance.

That he missed only one European Championship (1970 after returning from racing) between racing for France at the 1962 continental showcase right through to London 2016 this year is a wonder in itself; that he stuck with counting world cup scores long after FINA had somehow managed to lose the rhyme and reason of short-course racing he’d done so much to promote in that quiet way that unsung heroes often do makes him a candidate for canonisation.

Kiehl, who recalled days of youth, triumph and tragedy on the 50th anniversary of the Bremen air disaster back in January this year, has enjoyed several roles since his racing days. Multi-lingual commentator, presenter, he was also media liaison for the European swimming league. In the early world cups in the days when Bonn held sway as short-course pressed for a greater presence in world swimming, Kiehl was among those exploring ways to bring the thrill and splash of the sport to audiences in between the big moments at a time when the four-year cycle Olympics, continental and regional highlight; World Championships; another regional highlight; and back to the Gameshis presence at meets such as the Canet round of the Mare Nostrum Tour and today the Euro Meet in Luxembourg is not only useful to organisers but lends an upbeat, happy, beat to proceedings. He’s in his 70s these days. You’d never know it.

I don’t write any of this to embarrass Georges nor to make him our No18 in this SwimVortex choice of top 20 significant stories. It is just that he is symptomatic of an army of people who have long got things done in swimming, rarely got any credit as they help to keep the show on the road for the athletes while the likes of FINA keep the show going for … well, themselves, for the most part.

Kiehl is also among those who helped lay the foundations for short-course to become official, to become the realm of official world records in 1991, to become a vehicle for change, with prize money the lot of the swimmer and twixt-tradition-peaks swimming presented as fast and furious and thrilling.

And… they’re off – by Patrick B. Kraemer

It all turned into “The World Cup”. It all turned into: let’s water down the quality, let’s pump up the quantity, let’s make it a per-diem event for the family (the ones in the dry suits), bring in the sponsor, slap Yakult on every cap and give the swimmers enough money to keep them quiet in the belief they’d turn ‘pro’ when they’d done nothing of the kind and were living under the same yolk as those who had gone before them in almost all respects barring the ability to earn what for most was pocket money – and still is.

Just in case anyone should think I’m selling long-course short, here’s an excellent piece on YourSwimlog.com headed Long-Course Swimming: Why You Should Embrace the Big Pool. Quite so – Olivier Poiier-Lery setting out some of the key reasons why long-course makes the difference and will and should remain the ‘real deal’ of the sport.

Anyone, average swimmer or elite athlete who has ever gone from short to long and back again in the course of a day in training will know the feeling: water to treacle, breath to gasp – and back again. It is a little like doing a set with flippers and then taking them off and doing it all over again while wondering what happened to your feet, that friendly angle of buoyancy and the extra catch and carry in your stroke. There’s a difference, no matter how hard you work, how much you develop your skills in both environments.

One of the purposes of this piece, however, is to use short-course swimming as an example of where it can all go wrong when the political agenda and jockeying for position on lifestyle support trumps all else. In the book of swimming’s second thoughts: shiny suits, facilities rules, professionalisation of structures and personnel – and short-course.

Jack Of All Trades Wins Every Day, Master None

Katinka Hosszu who by now will have a medal for every day of the year – and some to spare – by Patrick B. Kraemer

The World Cup limped to an end in Hong Kong in late northern autumn. The fall, as Americans put it. Most appropriate for a failed product that needs more than a spring clean.

Why does it not work? Well, there the prize-money structure: for four years it has worked in favour of a handful and to the vast benefit of of one swimmer. Not Katinka Hosszu‘s fault – nor is she objecting to the model that works a treat – and who can blame her. We can blame the custodians who allow it.

Back in the days when Khiel was among those thinking about how to structure the prizes and the premium moments, no-one had in mind  four or five all-China heats of an event when in China, three heats of Russians when in Russia and a multiple endless racer who would win it all, time and time and time again, the big prizes only truly open to thos who can step up to a top 3 place on at least three strokes as well as a range of distance, sprint to distance.

I recall lots of moments in Bonn and Stockholm and Paris where the media bench was full. They didn’t come to see that domestic marathon of heats; they didn’t come to see folk ranked outside the world top 50, let alone top 200 (many in the cup series this year fit that bill); they didn’t come to see a development meet. And nor did the athletes. They came to race the best not the remains of the best.

Where is the scope to pay professional rates, in the cup competition as it stands, to the likes of Adam Peaty, Joe Schooling, Ryan Murphy, Ruta Meilutyte and many others? Folk who, of course, can swim beyond their beat … but not in world-record rattling form in 10 and more events none times a season.

Hosszu is anything but average and yet there is a sense, backed by the evidence of points, that FINA wants mediocrity because in opting for that it can have its cake and eat it, tell the world and its broadcasters that swimmers can be like tennis players, constantly on the top and in the headlines. It won’t wash.

Take Peaty. The British ace, whose 57.13sec world record victory delivered the outstanding swim of the 2016 Olympic Games, just bypassed the whole of the post-Rio global short-course season. Why?

Adam Peaty celebrates – by Patrick B. Kraemer

“At the end of the day, no-one cares about short-course in Britain. There’s no coverage of it and what people want to know about is the Olympic Games and the World long-course Championships. I think swimming is getting there as a sport, climbing up the ranking of sports to another level but only when it comes to the Olympic Games and then the World long-course.”

August to November, 8 or 9 events, full world-championship programs. Attractive?

“The world cup isn’t working. It is ridiculous and  embarrasing. They [FINA and the sponsor the federation persuaded to sign up] should put that money to good use, anywhere else in the sport. It’s completely the wrong time of the season for me and for most swimmers. Put it in January and February if you have to; make it one of those good test events on the way to trials season.”

Ah! Season! Swimming is a sport for all seasons but none, right now, when you look at the chaos of a calendar that serves to demote, not promote, swimming and swimmers. We are not talking about the seasons that each of you may recognise and feel familiar with. We’re talking about the seasons that exist in other sports that are recognised and followed by the big audience in the wider world.

Peaty hits the nail on the head when he raises the word season and raises the timing of events. He then adds:

“No-one turns up to it and that’s why they put so much money into thinking that people will have to come to make a living. But they don’t. I don’t blame the people that do go to them [the cup rounds] because the money is good and they have to make a living but FINA needs to do something about that because it clearly isn’t working.”

Photo by Patrick B. Kraemer

Indeed not. Not even close to doing so. The solution is not to simply revamp the world cup. What is required is a fundamental rethink of the swimming calendar at world-class elite level and where that fits into all those events, from regional and continental events to domestic trials and nationals, college swimming and on down through the ranks of juniors and developers, international and domestic.

As things stand, there is no structure, no logic and no flow that makes sense to anyone outside the sport. And even within it, the voice of opposition, so long dormant, is starting to be heard.

FINA’s obsession with ‘more is more’ has taken a toll. The federation’s attempt to steer more attention to and place more value on short-course has failed. Says Peaty:

“For me it is all about long-course. That’s it: all people want to see it long-course because that’s what the Olympics is and what the majors are. I’d rather win gold or multiple golds in Hungary next year (world l/c) than a silver or something at a world s/c event.”

He adds: “The thing is, it is a different sport, short-course. I don’t do world cups because its unrelatable. It’s about people going there for the money and it’s not what it should be about. You’ve got to have passion and that’s where the difference is made at long-course: 100% passion and dedication or you won’t be there winning big medals.”

Adam Peaty – by Patrick B. Kraemer

I don’t raise the direct issue of access to sports governance and the decision-making process with Peaty, a man on whom you need not try any sheep-dog-style questions that seek to corral the answers to suit whatever they intend to suit. He knows his own mind – and he would one day like to put that to good use as a leader in his sport on dryland.

His interest rests in a better deal for athletes and the promotion of values he holds dear and what he feels is important in the sport. Peaty says:  “We live in a culture now where people will do anything to get on YouTube, on Facebook and get noticed through some viral video doing something absolutely stupid.  Obviously you should have your fun as a kid but its whether that stays with you as an adult.”

So what to do about it and what relevance to swimming?

“I’d love to have a position where I could have a positive impact on the sport, not just on people. I think the sport needs some people who have been there and done it, so I’m thinking of going into that area as well.  Maybe in the IOC or FINA where you can absolutely make a difference and change that culture and give 100% to that sport and know what’s 100% right and you’d be willing to do anything to make the sport right and do the best by the athletes and those who work at it every single day.

“Recently in swimming governance it just hasn’t been like that. I think it has to change and I’d be 100% up for playing a role come the time. That’s eight years away [he intends to battle for top honours until the 2024 Olympic Games] and alot can change in eight years so you hope that others will press for change, too, along the way.”

Alex Baumann, one of the greats of medley swimming [Photo compilation: depicted on a Canadian bus; in a poster; in action, the Prague astronomical clock; and with coach Tihanyi]

Fascinating prospects: imagine a day when the likes of Peaty, Anthony Ervin, Michael Phelps, Mack Horton and Co get a direct say in the rights of athletes, in what matters to them, in what values they hold most dear. Go back in history and you find the likes of Michael Gross and Alex Baumann and Shane Gould and Debbie Meyer and Nancy Hogshead and … and many others … putting keen minds to the topic of how best swimming might be run and what the sport’s priorities should be and how one might go about delivering that.

You will note that neither Gross (largely, if not altogether, lost to the sport) nor Baumann (lost to swimming in a direct sense but playing leading roles in sport in his post-swimmer career) nor a great many others got anywhere near to the decision-making process in swimming.

Will Phelps? Will Peaty? Will Ervin? Will so many others, coach leaders in the mix, who would have so much to contribute?

Time will tell but unless FINA is either radically reformed or replaced, they will not have access to such things. The entire structure is built to make sure that cannot be, while ‘athlete representative’, such as an athlete leader on the FINA Bureau, is little more than a token measure in the midst of a culture that prizes assimilation of any who join ‘the family’ over just about all else. New and sound ideas, let alone saying ‘actually, I disagree’, have little chance of flourishing.

Since Rio 2016, I have asked 25 Olympic finalists, just over half of them podium placers, if they felt represented by the athletes sitting on commissions at FINA and relatied continental bodies.

Go! – by Patrick B. Kraemer

To a man and a woman the reply was ‘No’. Of the 25, 20 noted that they had never been asked and never been consulted on any issue related to athlete well-being, from the timing of finals in Rio to the kind of blocks that are used, to the scheduling of competitions and on to issues such as the distribution of prize money at major events and the obligation to wear kit with the FINA sponsor on it even when that may place the athlete in direct conflict with the personal sponsor that pays the swimmer’s way through the sport.

So how, then does FINA go about seeking information on what athletes want, how more might make it to the cup? Well, there’s the athlete’s commission but that’s not “current crew”. What FINA has engaged in is a process that lacks transparency and anything like a scientific approach. A word in the ear of a couple of world-class athletes: go out into the world of swimmers and return with the messages they have for us, partly so we can use that to do a quick spruce up but largely go and as things stand and partly so we can say ‘well, we did ask and that’s what the athletes wanted’.

But what is it that they want for an event in between the twin peaks?

what does swimming want to showcase? what is it the sport wants to reward? what does it want to hold up as ‘peak performance’? what other ways can the sport be measured in to take away the need to always be either in peak form or boring. what is its highlight, where is weight and worth? is quantity to be valued over quality? what is the rationale behind prizing excellent training sets across the board over the few focussed moments of higher excellence? do you want a wider audience? do you want a wider catchment group of sponsors and backers? do you, the swimmer, want to become part of a professional network of elite swimmers? does your sport showcase your excellence in a way that makes swimming accessible and helps spread the word of an activity that transcends racing and health and entertainment, the wider benefits to be had stretching all the way to saving lives? can swimming do much better by you and the potential of professionalism?

Splash – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Format matters. Swimming is a sport that keeps telling the deaf ear of FINA and other guardians that it needs to train in private and get on with life beyond the lights at certain times of the year; swimming is a sport crying out for calendar reform; swimming is a sport left looking for new ways to grow beyond Mount Olympus and World Championships, leagues and complex points systems having proved unappealing and ineffective as a magnet even with money as incentive.

Can a completely new concept work? And where would short-course fit in?

We considered those issues here at SwimVortex back in the northern autumn. Here is what we came up with as a possible way forward, a way out of the twixt-peak malaise. It was published not as a commandment but as an invitation to sit at the round table and imagine what kind of swimming world you would like to see. That conversation has not yet reached the custodians of the sport. If sooner or later, swimmers and coaches want something different, however, they may well have to organise it themselves unless FINA has an epiphany.

Many of you read “A great day out at SWimbledon” when it was published on November 15. You need not read on. Below is the same piece repeated for those who missed it the first time round and are interested in the topic at hand: reform.

Great Day Out at ‘SWimbledon’: Dawn Of A Golden Era For The Pro-Swimmer?

Editorial

Warm-Up – by Patrick B. Kraemer

After considering the woeful state of the world cup, casting a glance at one of the biggest battlegrounds ahead – access to decision making – we looked at what’s not worked, why and what might be done about it if the sports wants to lay the foundations of something better. That includes understanding swimming seasons, while recognising …

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