Swimming New Zealand is in the middle of an in-depth Review of its structure, its management and its sphere of operation. Everything about the organization is open to analysis; is the subject of critical examination. The CEO of SPARC, Peter Miskimmin pushed the Coalition of Regions into accepting the Review because he saw it as the only way left to inflict his socialist management model on yet another New Zealand sport. He’d already imposed centralized management structures on rowing, gymnastics and surf live-saving. All three are currently in various stages of being broke and broken. But Miskimmin does not care. The management of swimming was weak. The sport was completely dependent on Miskimmin for its financial survival. It was an ideal subject for the next SPARC invasion.

Swimwatch warned the Coalition of Regions not to trust SPARC. On a dark, wet night, lost on the top of Mount Whakapunaki, Miskimmin, Collins, Butler, Byrne and McDonald are not the first guys you’d chose as mates. In fact as far as captains of industry go they remind me of Captain Francesco Schettino. He was the Captain of that Italian cruise ship that sank close to the Italian coast a couple of weeks ago. Captain Schettino has been accused of leaving the sinking ship while hundreds of his passengers were fighting for their lives. You’d be excused for thinking that he may have learned that trick from Miskimmin and his friends. My warning to the Coalition of Regions was to never shake hands with those guys without carefully counting your fingers afterwards.

Well, the Coalition of Regions ignored that advice. They were conned by the smooth talking Miskimmin. They trusted SPARC. And now the Coalition of Regions and the sport of swimming will pay for that trust. The Mediation Agreement that set up the Review silenced the opposition. In the hiatus of silence; with their rivals gagged, the Board of Swimming New Zealand and SPARC have run riot.

During a period of management Review, good business practice demands that structural and management changes are put on hold. A time of Review is a time to call a holiday on even normal business initiatives. But that hasn’t happened here; not by a country mile. In a series of schemes, that must have been preplanned, Swimming New Zealand has embarked on a raft of conspiracies. While the rest of us have slept, Swimming New Zealand has been very busy indeed.

They have altered their rules to ban people like me from their National Championships. Because I dare to exercise the right to question the motives of the crooks that run this organization, Swimming New Zealand introduced a measure that denied me the right to coach my swimmers at the New Zealand Olympic Trials. My swimmers are not political pawns in my debate with Swimming New Zealand. It is none of their business. However there is a part of me that wants to see one or two of my swimmers swim really well so that main stream reporters in New Zealand can appreciate the hurt I feel at being denied the right to wish my swimmers well or congratulate them on a job well done. We have worked very hard for that moment and I do take it hard when Miskimmin and Butler and their friends deny me the right to enjoy it.

They have established a High Performance Unit in Wellington. The current Review needs to consider whether Swimming New Zealand has any right to be involved in the preparation of competitive swimmers. Certainly the evidence of sixteen years and sixteen million dollars suggests that they are very poor at the job. Recognizing that the dismal performance of the North Shore High Performance Unit might lead thinking members of the Review to the conclusion that private enterprise can prepare elite athletes better Miskimmin initiated two master strokes of deception. He appointed Gary Hurring to the Review Committee and then paid him to Head the Wellington High Performance Unit. Miskimmin just bought off a New Zealand Sportsman of the Year and his vote. There is no way Gary can vote to end his own source of income. And second, Miskimmin’s Wellington High Performance Unit has created a structure so expensive, so complex that any Review would be excused for reaching the conclusion that it was all too difficult to unravel. Game, set and match to the bad buggers.

And now Swimming New Zealand has circulated a document called, “Proposed changes to the SNZ Regulations and Events Information”. This masterpiece contains the next three moves in Swimming New Zealand’s campaign of dishonesty. The proposed changes are not good. However the method of their introduction during a period of Review positively stinks. The reputation of Miskimmin and Butler is in tatters – or it should be.

The first change proposes that, “After the successful staging of a combined open and age group short course championship in August last year it is proposed to maintain a combined event using a 5 day format going forward.” I believe that’s not a bad idea. However Swimming New Zealand has no right to make the change in the middle of a period of Review.

The second change proposes that, “the format that we currently have for the State 2012 New Zealand Open Championships makes it impossible to select relay team members for the London Olympics, as in a couple of cases the relay event occurs prior to the individual event. This will therefore require a change to the sessions that relays are held in.” Here again, not a bad suggestion but made at a most suspect moment in absolute violation of the agreement made between Swimming New Zealand, the Coalition of Regions and Peter Miskimmin.

The third change proposes that, “It is Swimming New Zealand’s goal to ensure that all events used to achieve qualifying times for New Zealand Championships and for use overseas are of an appropriate standard and swimmers are given the best possible opportunity to achieve their goal times. In an effort to ensure this we are proposing that an event ratification process is established.” The first two innocuous changes are simply to disguise the danger inherent in this classic piece of Swimming New Zealand treachery; to lull the reader into a sense that all this is boring house-keeping before sliding through a measure of seismic magnitude. It is a classic Swimming New Zealand ploy. It’s the way Miskimmin and his friends do just about everything. As we have said before the buggers would not know how to lie straight in bed. This move simply proposes that every swim meet should be subject to a Swimming New Zealand registration process. Recognize the deception? Within a year Comet and Aqua Hawks and West Auckland Aquatics and Wharanui and every other club in the country will be paying Swimming New Zealand a fortune to register meets those clubs have been staging for thirty years for free. This is simply another Miskimmin led, Swimming New Zealand rip off.

Regular Swimwatch readers will be aware of the ease with which Swimming New Zealand ignore inconvenient rules.

Remember when they overturned a vote of the Directors and appointed Butler and Wrightson to the Board because Miskimmin and his hired help demanded obedience. It is hard to imagine the rules that were broken on that occasion. Rules of meeting procedure, rules of democracy and the organization’s constitution were put to one side; were treated with contempt.

I did hear that Swimming New Zealand think nothing of taking funds for an approved purpose to pay non-approved expenses. That is unconstitutional and in some circumstances may be illegal.

Changing the minutes of an Annual Meeting is hardly ethical behaviour. Any sporting code would class that as a red card offence. But not Swimming New Zealand. They just waited for the next Annual Meeting to correct the deception and moved on as though nothing unusual had occurred.

The decision to form a High Performance unit in Wellington slap bang in the middle of a full scale review of the sport is a certain breech of the rules of good corporate behaviour. In authorising the new venture, Butler, Byrne and Miskimmin approved corporate cheating. Does that make them cheats?

The regular reappointment of Ross Butler is a breach of Clause 10 of the Swimming New Zealand Constitution. Ross Butler has been reappointed for three, two year periods. Clause 10 only allows for one additional two year period. You would imagine that would disqualify Butler from membership. Not in Swimming New Zealand it doesn’t.

Swimming New Zealand has failed to file its annual accounts in 2005, 2008 and 2010? The law is clear. Here is what it says –   “Every society shall deliver annually to the Registrar, a statement containing the following particulars: (a) The income and expenditure of the society (b) The assets and liabilities of the society (c) All mortgages, charges, and securities. In three of the past five years Mike Byrne’s Swimming New Zealand has failed in its statutory duty to provide the Registrar with a set of accounts.

While it would be possible to list a further dozen examples of Swimming New Zealand’s dismissal of fair play rules, I’m sure you get the idea. Butler, Byrne and Miskimmin lead an organization that has treated the rule of law with contempt. That’s why I always felt it ironic that Mike Byrne used to claim the Swimming New Zealand Constitution prevented him doing his job. When you don’t give a damn about the rules, why should the Constitution hold you back?

With this history it will not surprise you to hear that I was stunned to hear a story today of Swimming New Zealand demanding absolute compliance with the rules of swimming. Was it possible that this organization could be both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it came to enforcing the organization’s rules? Or perhaps the key to enforcement is convenience.

Here is what happened.

Sometime last year, I’m told it was in July, there was a swim meet at the Greerton Pool in the Bay of Plenty. The meet was well attended and provision was made for disabled swimmers to take part with able bodied participants. That’s called mainstreaming and is a policy that has my 100% support. Australia has encouraged mainstreaming in swimming for years. New Zealand arrived late but now, in Auckland at least, has many disabled competitors competing successfully in predominantly able bodied events. There is no doubt that every sports person should have an inherent right to participate in swimming in the most inclusive setting possible. And this I am told is what the Greerton Meet was trying to do.

Attending to the rules at the meet were two Swimming New Zealand national officials. The meet began with a men’s breaststroke event. Two disabled athletes were competing in the first heat. It was swum and, I am told, much to everyone’s surprise both the disabled competitors were disqualified. Swimming New Zealand’s officials were asked to explain.

The first disabled competitor was disqualified, they said, for breeching Rule SW 7.6. This says, “At each turn and at the finish of the race, the touch shall be made with both hands simultaneously at, above, or below the water level.” The disabled competitor had not touched with “both hands”. He had touched the wall with only one hand; a fact that is hardly surprising. The young man only had one arm.

The second disabled competitor was disqualified for violating Rule SW 7.4. This says, “All movements of the legs shall be simultaneous and on the same horizontal plane without alternating movement.” The disabled competitor was certainly guilty of violating rule 7.4. He was also an amputee. He only had one leg.

An appeal was made to Swimming New Zealand for leniency. Given the lack of an arm and a leg couldn’t some compassion be shown and the athletes reinstated. But Swimming New Zealand’s officials stood firm. Dispensation could only be considered if the meet organizers had printed on their programme a note that made it clear that disabled athletes were taking part and their performances were subject to modified FINA rules. Because this had not been done Swimming New Zealand expected the one armed swimmer to touch with both hands – and the swimmer with one leg to kick with both feet. The disqualifications could not be changed.

As each day goes by the Mike Byrne, Peter Miskimmin and Ross Butler led organization becomes increasingly irrelevant. They ban me from their National Championships because I dare to suggest that disqualifying amputees is the behaviour of sick minds. They ride rough shod over rule after rule in their own corporate lives while they beat up on members of the disabled community who want to take part in the sport of swimming. On the evidence of this story it is these men who are a danger to competitors in swimming and should be banned from the Olympic Trials.

Swimming New Zealand has never been “One Team”. Swimming New Zealand is two teams; their team and the rest of us. The gulf between the two is as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon; certainly as stark as anything that will separate national teams at the Olympic Games.

The New Zealand Olympic Trial meet is a competition of ideologies. Good will compete against bad. Private enterprise coached athletes will contest each event with the fat cats from the state funded socialist empire at Auckland’s Millennium Institute. Those of us who have done it ourselves, who have paid our own bills, will contest the championships against those who have had government welfare checks pay for their swimming training, their gym membership, their massage, their medical bills and their lives. Swimmers who have bought their own uniforms and paid for their entry fees into the championship will pit their skills with those who have had the New Zealand taxpayer meet those costs.

I was disappointed to learn that Gary Hurring had sold out and joined the empire. The men who taught Gary to swim and employed him in his early coaching career would never have made that decision. They valued character, independence and strength. However, Gary has made his choice. So now there will be three “socialist” state coaches preparing swimmers for the New Zealand Olympic Trials, Hurring, Talbot-Cameron and Regan. Hell bent on beating them should be every other coach in the country.

The only way to bring about change is to beat the socialist swimmers in a swimming pool. Perhaps then Byrne and Butler will wake up to the reality that private enterprise competition does it best. Perhaps then the fortune being spent on the cosseted and secluded Millennium few will be distributed across the country according to ability and performance. Perhaps then a good swimmer can be financially rewarded for elite performance wherever they live. Perhaps then the blatant poaching of good New Zealand swimmers will stop. Perhaps then the system will be fair.

Byrne and Butler will fight reform all the way. The last thing they want is the rewards for effort being distributed to private enterprise coaches. They want to be in control of an empire. They want to “own” New Zealand’s best swimmers and three average swim coaches and call them their Aqua Blacks team. The opium of ownership is their drug of choice. They have no idea what’s involved in winning a swimming race. They know plenty about accumulating power and status. They have spent a life time doing just that.

Beating the state funded elite will not be easy. For ten years the best talent in the country has been pillaged by the national organisation. Using our money Swimming New Zealand has cherry picked the most talented. Very, very few of our country’s most talented were allowed to flourish in their natural environments, but were instead taken under the state’s wing and made to conform. Using our money Swimming New Zealand has laid waste to our sport. Using our money Swimming New Zealand has killed internal competition. Thank God for those determined few, especially those from Invercargill, who have stood firm against Mike Byrne’s socialism. Any economist or good business person will tell you that a strong industry is best founded on a strong, competitive domestic market. Swimming New Zealand has never understood the importance of domestic competition. Instead they sought and they bought a state funded monopoly. And it hasn’t worked. Their monopoly has never won anything in a decent international swim meet.

Swimming New Zealand has however made it difficult for us to beat them in a domestic competition. Swimming New Zealand’s team has so many financial advantages. There they will be at the Trials, dressed in their silver fern uniforms that we paid for, sitting in their privileged seats beside the New Zealand selectors, swimming with entry fees paid for by my parent’s registration fees, training in lanes bought with my taxes. But if money made you fast, no Kenyan would ever have won an Olympic track race. Swimming New Zealand’s swimmers have had access to all the resources of this sport. But the rest of us operate in a private enterprise environment best suited to winning. The way we do it is harder and more difficult. But it is better. Nine times out of ten, in this clash of ideologies, private enterprise independence prevails.

I am not aware of how many Swimwatch readers will be at the New Zealand trials. However, if you are in Auckland in the last week of March and if you do call in to watch the trials the swimmers you support will matter more than normal. If a swimmer from New Plymouth or West Auckland takes down a Millennium swimmer in the women’s 800, that’s a victory for all of us. When the women’s 200 and 400 medleys are won by a swimmer from Invercargill, New Zealand swimming will be that little bit stronger.  And every time a Millennium swimmer wins a race, the fabric of the sport in New Zealand will be damaged.

The management of elite swimming in New Zealand needs to be changed. The best way to do that is to beat the socialists in the swimming pool. Show them that their ideology is wrong. Show them that there is a better way. Every Swimming New Zealand defeat is a victory for swimming in New Zealand.

“CONTRARY TO HOW IT MAY LOOK, I AM NOT ACTUALLY RECEIVING A HEFTY SALARY FROM WELLINGTON TO KEEP THE SWIMWATCH PUBLISHING CAPABILITIES OFFLINE :)”

Thus ended Jane’s most recent email to me. During the break, Jane and Edward have found it necessary to shift the website to another server and indulged in a heap of other technical stuff that I am not qualified to discuss. [Editorial note: I broke everything. Sorry everyone. We're back now.] Anyway, sorry for the break. While we’ve been away there has been a lot going on in the corridors of Swimming New Zealand power. We can’t wait to begin the discussion again.

But before we do that, there was one story about to be posted when we disappeared. Here is that story. I hope you enjoy.

Introducing Heidi

Jane’s reaction was to say, “Wow, worldwide there must be so much waste of people like that.” I think she’s right. Here are the events that prompted the comment. See if you agree with her conclusion. In this story, the names of almost everyone and everything have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

About ten years ago I had a ten year old swimming in my Bronze Squad. I know this mainly because Heidi has told me. She is now twenty and has joined the WAQ Gold Squad. Vaguely, I do remember her ten years ago. Tall and skinny; a bit gangly in fact and not too keen on the Lydiard diet of 1000 meter medleys. I do remember thinking that she perfectly matched the build that Mike Regner, the East German National Coach who worked for me for several years, said that regime looked for in a potential champion swimmer.

Heidi and I went our separate ways when I left New Zealand to coach in the US Virgin Islands. She joined the biggest and best team in the district and for a few months was well coached. Her swimming made good progress. Her coach ordered her to swim a lot more butterfly than I had but he avoided the 1000 medleys – a quality that Heidi found endearing. Unfortunately for Heidi, another coach besides me was about to abandon her. Her good coach in Hawke’s Bay was offered a job in Auckland, and sensibly moved on to bigger and better things.

Heidi’s club appointed a new coach to lead the team. I don’t know his name so won’t need to lie to you about that. He was one of those Sergeant Major coaches. I can’t stand them. You must know what I mean; everyone in the pool on the stroke of five, no one allowed to miss an interval, twenty minutes of severe calisthenics before every swim, everything timed by two stop watches surgically attached to the owner’s neck.

If you meet Heidi today it will not surprise you to hear that she was not at all impressed by this parade of military authority. Her free spirit was not going to be ordered about by some legend in his own life time, tin pot tyrant. She asked her parents if she could leave and join a small rural club closer to home. The club had a very different coach whose style of coaching was very different from his colleague up the road, a quality much more to Heidi’s liking. Heidi will not agree with my next observation but I think this relaxed period in her swimming development came at just the right time; fun, but never likely to produce an Olympic Champion. At sixteen years old, the Olympic Champion dream was best put on hold anyway.

And then another coach abandoned Heidi. Her third coach also left the area. However, his legacy was important. Heidi was hooked on swimming. But was there anyone around who could convert that passion into results? Not in this part of rural New Zealand there wasn’t. The committee appointed another new person to coach their club. We’ll call him Sam. A couple of years went by and in that time Sam’s contribution to Heidi’s swimming included the following coaching gems.

• I don’t think you should swim in out-of-district competitions. When you swim badly people know you are coached by me and it reflects badly on my reputation.
• I don’t need a reason for asking you to do this training. Just do it.
• At your age it’s probably about time you found something else to do.
• You are not fast enough nor a good enough trainer to swim in the club’s competitive group. From Monday next week you will swim in the oldies keep fit lane.

For Heidi the frustration was unbearable. She knew she was good. Bit by bit, this “coach” who knew less about the sport of swimming than she did was stealing it away from her. Just as certainly as if he surgically removed her arms and legs he was killing her dream. Swimming New Zealand won’t let me on the pool deck at their National Championships because I dare to criticise their ridiculous organization. And yet they gladly provide Sam with a pass. Swimming New Zealand want swimmers to be safe? Then do something about Sam and those others who cause real damage. Jane is 100% right. It is such a waste. And it must happen everywhere.

What could Heidi do?

Well, what she did was call West Auckland Aquatics and we just love her sort of story. Just keep telling us we are no good. Go on, make our day. Heidi lives in Auckland now and in the past seven weeks has swum 79, 73, 69, 47, 70, 70 and 65 kilometres a week. We included her in our Auckland Championship’s relay team with Rhi, Jess and Jane. They beat the North Shore Club in a provincial relay championship for the first time in about six years. This athlete that was not good enough for Sam’s competitive squad was an Auckland Open Champion. Last Wednesday in the middle of a 70 kilometre week she swam a set of 5x100s from a push start. Her fastest was 1.03 and she averaged 1.05. Best of all on Thursday she managed not one 1000 medley but 4×1000 medley without comment. Last night her set of 10×200 averaged 2.22. The 20 year old Heidi has changed.

For a few months, Heidi’s career hung by a thread. Could she escape Swimming New Zealand’s disastrous guidance? Could she survive? Or was she going to be part of the 90% drop out rate that characterizes this Mike Byrne-led sport. I honestly think Swimming New Zealand don’t care. If Heidi disappears then Heidi just wasn’t up to it. The truth however is that when a Heidi disappears usually it’s because the environment Swimming New Zealand created is rotten to the core.

Today I received a reply from Peter Miskimmin. His letter is reproduced below. I am grateful that Miskimmin has taken the time to reply to my email. However, in my view, Miskimmin’s letter is full of the deception and guile that characterizes much of New Zealand sport. The most brilliant piece of trickery is in the third paragraph. Here is what the letter says, “SPARC did not direct the Board of Swimming NZ about any of its decisions. The terms of reference for the two nominee directors, as agreed between SPARC and Swimming NZ, state that “All decision making whatsoever including whether to accept or act on any input from the (nominee directors) is retained by Swimming NZ”.

Do you see the classic sting? Whatever Miskimmin’s hired guns on the Board of Swimming New Zealand say; whatever intimidation they exercise; whatever stand over tactics they employ, whatever financial destitution they threaten it can never be inappropriate because Miskimmin has a piece of paper that says, irrespective of the provocation, every decision is down to Swimming New Zealand.

What a sick joke. Does Miskimmin really expect swimming people to swallow the line that anything Miskimmin does is lawful because he has a piece of paper signed by Swimming New Zealand that says anything he does is lawful. The last people to use a defence like that were found guilty in Nuremberg in 1946.

Well, SPARC I don’t give a damn what your agreement with Swimming New Zealand says. It is of no concern to me that you have conned Swimming New Zealand into signing a permanent get out of jail card. When your hired guns go into a Swimming New Zealand Board Meeting and threaten ruin; when they use the financial might of SPARC to change the vote of the Swimming New Zealand Board – then that is wrong beyond belief. Miskimmin, you can hide behind semantics. You can use linguistic deception in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable. But your representatives, and therefore you, acted like school yard bullies. You deserve to be taken down and we will work for as long as it takes to see that happen.

The rest of the letter is pretty much empty words. With arrogance unique to public servants Miskimmin attempts to insult me by asking me not to bother him any further because I am merely a “member of the public who was not present at the meeting.” Well, Peter Miskimmin, members of the public are not second class flotsam for you to ignore. You are employed by us. Your Minister is elected by us. The Ombudsman’s Office was established to protect us. I will not be palmed off to your puppets that sit on the Swimming New Zealand Board. I will deal directly with you whether you like it or not. Because you are the problem. And beware the reply you have given in this letter is weak and will not work with the members of the public that read Swimwatch.

I will now write to the Minister of Sport complaining that SPARC’s representatives misused their position on the Swimming New Zealand Board and improperly forced three members to alter their vote to decline the nomination of Butler and Wrightson.

Here is a copy of Miskimmin’s reply.

We’ll let you know which bits we added at the end.

You’ve probably never heard of Marty Martin. He spent most of his life as an anonymous CIA operative. But he very recently came out of the closet as the man George Bush put in charge of finding Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of 9/11, and guess what? It turns out the man Bush put in charge of finding bin Laden is an extremely shady and allegedly corrupt war profiteer. Who would have thought?

Martin, of course, never succeeded in catching bin Laden. He ran the CIA’s bin Laden unit from 2002 to 2004, a fact that we now know only because he emerged to grab some credit for bin Laden’s death and celebrate the agency’s discontinued torture program: “We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day,” he told the Associated Press three weeks ago. Prior to that, he was just a nondescript former agency official who went into the security consulting business after retiring. The closest hint to just how key an official he was came from references to a “Marty M.”—described as a sort of Jack Bauer of the bayou—in former CIA director George Tenet’s memoir.

Now that we know who Martin really is, we can get a sense of what kind of guy George Bush turned to for arguably the most crucial job in the war on terror.

1. The Kind of Guy Who Bilks Taxpayers for His Own Enrichment

In 2007, after leaving the CIA, Martin joined International Oil Trading Company, a Florida company that delivered fuel to U.S. forces in the Middle East. In 2008, congressional investigators accused it of ripping off the Pentagon to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This year, the Pentagon’s own audit found that the company overcharged the government by as much as $204 million on a series of massive Iraq war fuel contracts.

2. The Kind of Guy Who Bribes Foreign Officials

According to a Florida lawsuit against International Oil’s owner Harry Sargeant III, Martin paid a $9 million bribe to the head of the Jordanian intelligence service back in 2007 to secure his company’s exclusive rights to ship fuel across Jordan to U.S bases in Iraq. (That allegation comes from the Jordanian king’s brother-in-law, Mohammad al-Saleh, who is suing Sargeant for purportedly screwing him out of a $100 million stake in the company.)

3. The Kind of Guy Who Helps Launder Illegal Political Contributions

In 2008, the Washington Post reported that Sargeant, a billionaire, raised funds for John McCain’s presidential campaign with help from an unnamed “former head of the bin Laden unit” who worked for him. The men reportedly skirted campaign finance laws by funnelling the money through Arab-American “straw donors.” McCain quickly returned $50,000 of Sargeant’s lucre. The Post never named the ex-chief of the CIA bin Laden unit involved in the fundraising, but unless two former heads of the bin Laden unit were working for Sargeant at the time, that man was Marty Martin.

4. The Kind of Guy Who Gets Totally Psyched When People Die In a War He Profits From

In a court filing last week, attorneys for al-Saleh quoted from an e-mail that Martin wrote to Sargeant in 2008 in which he appeared to gloat over the escalation of violence in Iraq:

“Fyi, word of a ‘re-surge’ is floating around amidst shit hitting the fan in Iraq today. ☺”

The “shit hitting the fan” was the Battle of Basra, the Iraqi Army’s attempt in March 2008 to finally roll up militias loyal to Moqtada al Sadr. It was widely seen as a debacle and victory for al-Sadr, and many feared the conflict threatened to reignite the civil war. That month, 40 Americans died in Iraq. ☺!

5. The Kind of Guy Who Has a Daughter Who Swam In My Last Swim Club and Whose Wife Was the Club Secretary

Believe it or not that’s right. I did wonder why he spoke fluent Arabic on the phone while other parents watched their Bronze Squad offspring attempt the 25 metres butterfly. What did he do to afford a $2.6 million house and an international business jet? At a swim meet in Jupiter he brought me up to date on several ways of killing a human being without needing a weapon. That too seemed a bit different from other swim team parents. His ex-British diplomat wife, Carla, was very picky about where the swim team’s money was spent. So picky, she once questioned whether I could have used French side roads instead of paying motorway tolls when I took our club’s best swimmers to Mare Nostrum. For the sake of a few Euros, she made a hell of a fuss. Aware of the concern about the growing Euro toll booth bill, paid to get swimmers from Canet, France, to the tour’s last stop in Monaco, the swimmers paid several of the toll booths themselves. Still, when they got home, Carla didn’t care. The expenditure from the club was still unacceptable.

It seems she may have a several million times bigger financial problem that is about to see her husband return to the care of the US Government. Karma – it’s a wonderful concept.

Anyway, that’s Marty Martin, the guy George Bush put in charge of the bin Laden hunt. Glad it worked out for him.

Harry Sargeant’s lawyers couldn’t be reached for comment on this story. The CIA declined to comment. And Marty Martin’s bin Laden-hunting predecessor, Michael Scheuer –- who served for two years as a special adviser to Martin’s unit –- claims to have never heard of Marty Martin (which we can only presume is a CIA first-rule-of-Fight-Club omerta thing). Reached on his phone, Martin said: “No no, man. I don’t want to talk to you, man,” and hung up before we had a chance to ask a question.

Swimwatch thank the American political blog GAWKER for this story – all the bits that is, except the paragraph about Marty and his wife being parents of a swimmer on our Florida swim team. Again, if you want to read the original, you can find it here http://gawker.com/5803556/ .

Somewhat associated with this story – our apartment in Florida was in a complex called the Delray Racquet Club. One of the more infamous residents of an apartment in the floor just above our unit was Mohammed Atta. On September 11 2001 at 8.46am he flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre.

Just… wow.

I have tonight written to the CEO of SPARC, Peter Miskimmin. The letter is copied below and is fairly self explanatory. We will publish Miskimmin’s reply when it is received – if it is received.

Dear Peter,

You may be aware of the concern felt by many involved in the sport of swimming by the events reported by Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday on Sunday November 20 2011. I refer to the following extract.

“The SNZ board consists of six directors elected at the AGM. They can appoint two further directors – commonly referred to as independents – to the board. Butler and Jane Wrightson put forward their names for further terms on the board as independents until next year’s AGM. Their re-appointments were rejected by a 4:3 vote.

At that point McDonald and Cull joined the three who voted for the return of Butler and Wrightson and exited the meeting. It left the board incapable of continuing without the requisite quorum of 60 per cent. Cull is alleged to have returned later. He told the remaining four board members they needed to change their vote or the Sparc advisors would leave and the sport would be reduced to further dysfunctional depths. The Sparc advisors were apparently concerned consequences of the previous vote could result in further media criticism of the sport. Consequently three of those who voted against the return of Butler and Wrightson reverted their decision; one board member remained against. The decision to repeal the initial vote underlines how much influence Sparc has over swimming’s sovereignty. McDonald and Cull have a brief to maintain the status quo where possible. This precedent suggests they have the power to continue doing it.”

Further investigation has revealed the detail of what transpired. I understand that the meeting voted on the reappointment of Wrightson and Butler and on the appointment of Butler as Chairman/President. All the appointment remits were lost by four votes to three. The four elected members voting against the motions to reappoint Wrightson and Butler as the two independent Directors were Speer, Sutton, Pullon and Fitch. The three Board members voting for the appointments were Berge, Clarke and Wrightson. It needs to be noted that Butler was absent from this meeting. Once the vote of reappointment to the Board and appointment to the position of Chairman/President was lost, the three members who had voted for the appointments and the two SPARC Board observers (Kerry McDonald and Nelson Cull) left the meeting. I understand they left after expressing their disgust at the appointments being rejected by the Board. Fifteen minutes later the three directors and the two SPARC observers returned to the meeting. I understand that Nelson Cole proceeded to lecture and harangue the four negative voters and ordered them to change their vote. I understand there was a clear threat made that SPARC’s funding was at risk if the votes of the dissenting Board Members were not changed and the appointments proposed in these remits were not confirmed by the Board in a revote. The discussion took twenty minutes and was clearly a case of governmental/political interference in the management of a sporting organization. Cole called the Board dysfunctional and said he would report to SPARC that it was not capable of managing the sport. He would recommend that the current Review of the sport be discontinued. These were all clear threats to the Board of Swimming New Zealand by a New Zealand government agency; a clear case of intimidation using the power of the state. A second vote was ordered. Three of the four dissenting Directors folded and changed their vote to approve the appointments. Only Suzanne Speer continued to vote against the appointments.

I am sure you appreciate the concern swimming people feel at the events described above. I am resolved to take every step possible to ensure your organization does not continue to manipulate the management of the sport. This was a properly taken vote of the Swimming New Zealand Board that SPARC had no authority to change. Our legal advice is that SPARC has acted unlawfully?

SPARC can only act in keeping with the functions available to SPARC under the Sport and Recreation New Zealand Act 2002 or any functions given SPARC by the Minister responsible for sport.

The only provision in the Act with any possible connection with SPARC’s role in using Nelson Cull / Kerry McDonald to obtain a reversal of the SNZ’s board’s intentions is Clause (i) that says SPARC can, “facilitate the resolution of disputes between persons or organizations involved in physical recreation and sport” But SPARC’s power under (i) above relates to dispute resolution only; creating an environment for discussion and conciliation; acting in a mediation role for example. SPARC isn’t permitted to meddle inside a sport’s organization or intimidate or take control of that organization’s governing body.

So, there is a case that SPARC has acted illegally. Is there any right of legal redress? Before going down that path those involved with me in this action have resolved to follow the following course of action.

1. Write to you as the CEO of SPARC requesting an apology from SPARC be published on the Swimming New Zealand website and that the original vote to reject the appointment of Butler and Wrightson to the Swimming New Zealand Board be reinstated and stand as the decision of the Board.
2. If that approach is rejected to write to the Minister of Sport setting out the circumstances of SPARC’s actions and asking the Minister to order a SPARC apology and the reinstatement of the initial vote of the Board.
3. If the approach to the Minister is rejected to file a complaint with the Ombudsman asking his office to order a SPARC apology and the reinstatement of the initial vote of the Board.
4. If the ruling of the Ombudsman is negative we will consider asking the Court to rule on SPARC’s involvement in this Board meeting in a civil action.

I hope you can appreciate the depth of our concern at the illegitimate power your organization has exercised over the affairs of swimming in New Zealand. It would be preferable to avoid the steps detailed above. With this in mind we would ask and sincerely hope SPARC will be able to apologize on Swimming New Zealand’s website and reinstate the Board’s vote to reject the appointment of Wrightson and Butler.

I look forward to your reply to this email within seven days. If we fail to hear from you or the terms of this email are rejected in this time we will proceed to the next step of contacting your Minister.

Regards

David Wright

Swim Coach

West Auckland Aquatics’ fastest swimmers are working their way through 70 to 100 kilometres a week. The kilometres are ticking by at a healthy four kilometres an hour. With a self motivated group like this there is time for the coach to ponder the condition of swimming in New Zealand. So much of what goes on these days is done behind closed doors; in secret. Inevitably that leads to a succession of conspiracy theories – each one more bizarre than the next. But are they bizarre? Perhaps not. Here is what I think has happened since the Regions agreed to a wholesale review of swimming a few weeks ago.

The first sign of SPARC’s unacceptable appetite for power came when the CEO of SPARC, Peter Miskimmin, ordered a properly taken vote of the Swimming New Zealand Board to be overturned. By a vote of 4 to 3 the Board of Swimming New Zealand voted to reject the appointment of Wrightson and Butler to the Board. Democracy, meeting procedure, the rule of law – none of that concerned Miskimmin. He ordered the vote to be overturned and that’s what happened. It stinks, it’s wrong, it’s inexcusable. I have no doubt that Miskimmin will claim that the interests of stability justified his intervention. Every tin-pot dictator in history has made the same claim. Caligula said it was “disloyalty to the state” that justified his bad behaviour. Lincoln brushed aside the Bill of Rights to “Save the Union”. Germany used “lebensraum or living space” as justification for war. Papa Doc claimed that “saving his poor Negro Republic” justified unspeakable atrocities. They were wrong and so is Miskimmin.

Then I made an Official Information Act request for a copy of the Agreement reached between the Regions and SPARC at their Wellington meeting. Miskimmin wrote to me claiming that the Agreement was commercially sensitive and would sour relationships between SPARC, Swimming New Zealand and the Regions if a copy was given to a West Auckland swimming coach. That was clearly rubbish and so I filed a complaint with the Ombudsman. With an ounce of luck the Ombudsman will see through Miskimmin’s deception and will order him to provide a copy of the Agreement. The whole process reflects badly on Miskimmin and his organization. The management of sport should not be about secret deals hidden from those who commit their lives to achieving athletic success. I can only hope the Ombudsman appreciates the importance of my request. There is no reason for this Agreement to be hidden from the membership of the sport. It is only kept secret because that’s the way Miskimmin does business – in dark alleys, behind closed doors.

And then I wrote to FINA with a formal complaint. Peter Miskimmins organization is in clear breech of FINA Rule 13 which prohibits government organizations interfering in the management of national swimming bodies. Not a day goes by that SPARC does not breech that rule. Their involvement in Swimming New Zealand goes way beyond interference. Peter Miskimmin and SPARC run the show. They decide who will be on the Board, what structural changes will be made and who will be appointed to senior staff positions. One of the most delightful moments in my life occurred recently when I read a letter from Chris Moller, the Chairman of the Swimming Review Working Group. In it Moller said, “This group will formulate recommendations separately and independently of SPARC.” How outrageously funny is that? Nothing, not a damn thing in swimming these days is done “separately and independently of SPARC.” Miskimmin’s fingerprints are all over everything that goes on down there. New Zealand’s swimming results in London, the conclusions of the Working Group, Ross Butlers and Mike Byrne’s next cup of coffee belong lock, stock and barrel to Peter Miskimmin. He appointed himself to the Steering Committee that runs the Working Group remember. He made the phone call to appoint Chris Moller. How separate is that? There is no “separately and independently” in the Peter Miskimmin world. Oh and I have not heard back from FINA in response to my complaint. I do hope they take it seriously. Their sport is in deep trouble down here in New Zealand.

Most recently, we have the decision to set up a High Performance Centre in Wellington. This decision fascinates me. Clearly the intention was to make such a significant change and enter into such important financial commitments that, along with the Millennium Institute in Auckland, would compel the Review Working Group to leave intact Swimming New Zealand’s control of elite swimming. The level of involvement is already so great that the Working Group have no option but to leave things as they are. Miskimmin has outsmarted the Regions just as I said he would. But how do we know this sleight of hand was down to Miskimmin. Well, I’ve met Butler – as smooth as silk, full of charm and “hail fellow well met”, but without much in the way of substance. I just don’t think Butler has the balls to set up a Wellington High Performance Centre knowing that the Working Group is about to begin its Review. A decision like that takes better than the likes of Butler. No, my guess is that Miskimmin has told McDonald and Cull to order the Swimming New Zealand Board to approve the Wellington initiative. The “dead of night” secrecy and the lack of any formal announcement are classic Miskimmin. He has a clear goal of what he wants the Review Working Group to decide and he’s putting structures in place that ensure he gets it.

The real problem with SPARC’s invasive interference in the affairs of Swimming New Zealand is that Miskimmin, McDonald and Cull know nothing about the product. They have no idea what it takes to win a swimming race and in every decision they make it shows. Twice I have been in meetings where Miskimmin has told me he will never intervene in the internal management structure of a national sport. I hope the content of this report prove that twice Miskimmin has lied to me. His finger prints are all over the affairs of swimming in New Zealand. He is as guilty as all hell. For the health of swimming, I hope FINA and the Ombudsman help Swimwatch nail the scoundrel.

I am conscious that the author of a blog such as Swimwatch needs to be careful that the blog remains positive. It should not become a constant source of complaints. During this period of mismanagement of swimming in New Zealand it has been difficult to avoid the whingeing label. Someone needed to say something. The behaviour of the Board and senior management could not be ignored. And, again today I noticed a report on the Wellington Capital Swim Club’s website that is of concern. What is it that the CEO of SPARC, Peter Miskimmin, is allowing his subordinates in Swimming New Zealand to do? Here is the report I found on the Capital Swim Club’s website.

Update from the Chair

Hi

Wellington Regional High Performance Unit

Last night your Board met with the CEO’s of SNZ and WhiPA to finalise the lane space that will be used by the CSC and HPU. The Board agreed that the formation of a Wellington Regional HPU was in the best interests of swimmers and the sport and has no detrimental effect on the CSC. It sees some of the overall benefits as:
A net gain for swimming including Capital swimmers

Swimming has more lanes

Swimming has more 50m set ups

Swimming has a first opportunity to run a complete HPU in Wellington in accord with SNZ strategic direction to form regional HPU’s

Greater opportunity to get leading edge swimming equipment

Greater opportunity to recruit sponsorship

Parents and swimmers of members of the CSC HPU were recently briefed by the CEO of SNZ and Gary Hurring on what this means for them. All members of the CSC HPU will transfer into the Wellington Regional HPU. It will be operational from 16 January 2012 and based at WRAC. (subject to written agreement with the WCC -see below)

The formation of the Wellington Regional HPU will mean a restructuring of our squads and a change of pool for training from WRAC to Freyberg. Timon and Luke are currently working through the squad changes and these will be advised as soon as the exercise has been completed and confirmed by the Board.

The last remaining thing that is required before this can proceed is confirmation from the Wellington City Council on the lane space and the signing of a 3- 5 year written agreement between us on lane space at WRAC and Freyberg. We are hoping to have this in place by 16 December 2011.

If you have any feedback you wish to provide please do so by Friday 6 December 2011.

Regards Greg Crott

I am not concerned that a High Performance Unit is being established in Wellington. The merits of that decision can be debated at another time. What is of concern is the decision making process employed to arrive at this announcement. Miskimmin effectively runs Swimming New Zealand these days. This announcement is his responsibility. How has he performed? Not very well is the answer. He has demonstrated a liking for autocratic rule. He occupies a powerful position and wields that power with little concern for procedure or process. Just consider the following list of factors that should cause unease among swimming people.

1. A new Swimming New Zealand High Performance Unit is a major structural change. And yet it is not even reported on the SNZ website. Swimming New Zealand enters into a five year contract with the Wellington City Council for pool space and they tell no one. Miskimmin gets his hired help to hide the decision. A geek like me has to find the announcement of a major structural change in an obscure corner of a local swimming club’s website. Like many of his agreements, for some reason, Miskimmin seems to want to hide this one. And I think I know why.
2. I can find no record of this decision being discussed or approved by the Board of Swimming New Zealand. The organization is about to sign a $300,000 contract for five years pool space without Board approval. Evidently that’s not required these days. Get Miskimmin’s verbal approval – I hear he commits very little to writing – and Byrne and Butler scurry off to do their master’s bidding.
3. As we all know Swimming New Zealand is currently in the middle of a hugely expensive “Period of Review”. What will the future structure of Swimming New Zealand look like? Will the organization continue to directly manage New Zealand’s high performance swimmers? Will the structure of Swimming New Zealand be based on a centralist model or be founded on what Swimwatch has called “rugged individualism”. The whole place is up for review. Miskimmin has said all the options are on the table. The future, he says, cannot be constrained by the organization’s past. The best solutions, whatever they are, must be found for this sport. And yet while Miskimmin is saying all this stuff his employees are making structural changes and financial promises that will commit Swimming New Zealand to the Miskimmin unspoken plan for another five years. It is a slight of hand of Houdini proportions. Miskimmin has never wanted to reform swimming. He just wants it moulded to his image.
4. A key to the Miskimmin plan is to have Swimming New Zealand enter into long term structural changes and financial contracts that the Review Committee must take into account. Far from all the options being on the table, Miskimmin is putting in place structures that guarantee the Review Committee can only come to one conclusion – the Miskimmin Conclusion.
5. I am concerned about the position of Gary Hurring. In another typical example of Miskimmin duplicity Gary was appointed to the Swimming New Zealand Review Committee. The announcement of the new Wellington High Performance Unit means Gary will be paid a portion of his income by the Swimming New Zealand high performance organization. How can Gary possibly sit on a Committee charged with possibly abolishing Swimming New Zealand’s involvement in High Performance swimming when his income is so dependent on Swimming New Zealand preserving its high performance role? He has a serious and obvious conflict of interest. I suspect that will cause Gary some concern – it certainly should. I don’t think it will worry Miskimmin. He could see it simply as a tricky way of buying another vote. Gary should get off the Review Committee before his reputation and standing are compromised beyond repair.

Beware – although this announcement is presented to you in the guise of all that’s good for Wellington swimmers, it is probably a deception assembled by skilled operators to manipulate the work of the Review Committee. Right from the beginning I have consistently warned Swimming New Zealand’s regions that they were being conned and silenced by skilled operators. That is still my view. Why else has Swimming New Zealand made this change in secret? Why else hasn’t Miskimmin told you about it?

I have told this story before. It concerns Mohammed Ali who was arriving at Miami Airport. The driver of his car called the airport to arrange to park Ali’s car in a restricted zone that would allow the champion to get through the terminal quickly and avoid the pressing crowds that inevitably gathered when Ali appeared. According to plan, the driver parked in the restricted area and went into the airport to collect his employer. A few minutes later they emerged to find a parking warden, standing at the car, writing a ticket. The chauffer explained that, because this was Mohammed Ali, the airport authorities had approved the arrangement. The warden was incensed – just because Ali was the world heavyweight champion that did not give him the right to park anywhere he wanted – and defiantly stuck the ticket on the car window. The driver was about to argue when Ali gently put his hand on his shoulder and said, “Just take the ticket. It’s more important to him than it is to us.”

About four years ago Rhi had just returned to Florida to train with her old swim team. On her first afternoon there was some excitement around the pool; an Olympic Gold Medallist was back swimming at the pool. I was discussing the afternoon’s training with Rhi when the Pool Manager, a guy called Joe McNeely, came out of his office and strode purposely to where we were standing. “Has Rhi paid to get in he demanded?” “No” I said, “she is joining the swim team and the cost of her pool entry is covered in her coaching fees.” “I don’t care about that,” he said, “has she paid her coaching fees today?” I explained that it was Rhi’s first day back in Florida and her father, who lived in New York, would be paying the fees shortly. McNeely however was not to be deterred. Either Rhi paid her training fees there and then or the cost of pool entry was due. I paid him the four dollars. Clearly it meant more to him than it did to us.

Last weekend a West Auckland Aquatics’ swimmer called in at her boyfriend’s home. Visiting her boyfriend’s parents, at the same time, was the mother of three girls who used to swim at West Auckland Aquatics. She’s the same woman who said to me, “How could you?” when we secured the Court’s approval for Justin to be a member of Swimming New Zealand. On this occasion she asked our swimmer what plans she had for Christmas. Emma explained that she planned to have Christmas lunch at her grandmother’s home. “Oh” came the harsh reply, made crueler by the cutting Irish accent, “I’m surprised HE allows you to have Christmas Day off.”

There is no place in sport for people like her. Rhi, Jess, Justin, Erica, Nikki, Abigail and a dozen others work until they bleed with hurtful chlorine burns and she finds fault. She thinks it’s just fine to demean their efforts. But then, I guess it means more to her than it does to us. At least that’s what I told Emma.

And today I heard that New Zealand swimming official, Jo Davidson, may have been appointed to work at the London Olympic Games. If that’s true it is a fact beyond my comprehension. You see back at the 2002 New Zealand summer championships Jane Copland was favourite to win the 100 and 200 breaststroke. Shortly after the heat of the 200 one of the West Wave life guards came to where I was sitting and said he thought I should know that he had just taken Jo Davidson and two referees down to the underwater viewing windows below the West Wave pool. As he let them in he overheard Davidson tell the referees, “Now, Copland is swimming in the next heat and I will show you what to disqualify her for in the final tonight.”

It turns out the two referees were appointed to act in the finals session that night and Jo Davidson was setting out to ensure a swimmer whose father she didn’t like did not become a national champion. I went to the National Coach, Clive Rushton, and asked him to deal with a rogue official. To his eternal credit Clive took the complaint seriously and called for a hearing. Davidson looked as guilty as hell. And well she should. That sort of behaviour has no place in any sport. Anyone guilty of blatant cheating has no place officiating at an Olympic Games. Swimwatch analytics tell me that there are regular Swimwatch readers in Lucerne, Switzerland. I can only hope this report causes them to alter one of their appointments to the London Olympic Games. Swimming New Zealand will never do anything about her. The bunch of crooks in Wellington probably think Davidson behaviour represents all that’s good in the sport. Knowing what she is capable of they keep putting her name forward as a New Zealand official.

Finally, I heard today that Emily Thomas has just retired. That’s a shame. She is a very good swimmer who represented her country with distinction. Her bronze medal in the 50 meters backstroke at the Pan Pacific Games last year was New Zealand’s best performance since the Jeffs, Simcic, Loader and Langrell era. Who knows what the reasons are for her, all too early, retirement. What is inexcusable is that she has gone without a mention by Swimming New Zealand. This athlete represented the sport of swimming in New Zealand with absolute commitment. Swimming New Zealand has a duty to report and applaud her career. Ignoring her is the sort of inexcusable bad manners we came to expect during the Cameron era. It appears Miskimmin’s hired help know no better.

Mohammed Ali is right. The bad behaviour of the parking warden, Joe McNeely, a mother with an axe to grind, Jo Davidson and Swimming New Zealand is best ignored. Ali’s ability to turn the other cheek deserves the utmost respect. In the meantime us lesser mortals will write the buggers up on Swimwatch.