By David

Every month or so the Chairmen of all New Zealand’s swimming Regions have a conference call meeting with Brent Layton, the Chairman of Miskimmin’s new Swimming New Zealand. Now, and I am deadly serious about this, the sport of swimming, as delivered by Miskimmin’s Swimming New Zealand, is in serious need of a comprehensive Review.

I know that the ex-cricket administrator Chris Moller did a Review recently but the changes he made are not working. Every day the sport drifts into a deeper, darker abyss. I never thought anything could make the sport Jan Cameron and Mike Byrne left behind look halcyon, but Miskimmin’s replacements have achieved that in bucket loads.

Surely there are Chairmen of Regions out there who can see the present destruction. I know Berge won’t agree. For some reason he seems to think swimming has achieved a celestial state of grace. But Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay, Nelson, Canterbury and Southland – someone must realize the facts do not support the spin.

There should be a call for a Review to examine what has occurred since Miskimmin assumed control of swimming. The Regions should fund the Review; Miskimmin will never fund an examination of himself. It should be conducted by a real swimming expert. I suggest, Brian Palmer, Clive Rushton or Mark Schubert – or possibly all three. Now there are three men you can trust to come up with a structure that will win an Olympic swimming race. Get their plan and I guarantee that swimming people, me included, would support it without reservation. I mean Berge and his mates will probably huff and puff and claim insurrection and treason. However the sport depends on doing the right thing.

And if Layton says the Review is not needed or tries to veto the idea, the Regions should do it anyway and pay for it themselves. But, I hear you say, does the condition of the sport really merit such a revolutionary proposal.

For months now the pages of Swimwatch have recorded events that should not occur in a well-run sport. However this last week has witnessed a sudden downward spiral in the fortunes of Miskimmin’s swimming empire. You may have read about it in a Sunday Star Times item written by Simon Plumb. I recommend the Chairman of every Region read the story. The picture it paints is pretty bloody bad. Here is a much abbreviated summary to give you the flavour of what Plumb has found.

Swimming New Zealand faces questions over the services being provided to 2016 Olympic medal prospect Lauren Boyle and the efficiency of its $1.4 million-a-year, taxpayer-funded national high-performance programme.

On the eve of the Commonwealth Games, triple world championships medallist Boyle has extracted herself from Swimming NZ’s elite Auckland base, and the tuition of national coach David Lyles, to head for Barcelona to train under esteemed French coach Fred Vergnoux.

The need for Boyle to relocate her own training raises questions over Swimming NZ’s capacity to cater for the Rio 2016 medal prospect – the brightest talent New Zealand swimming has seen in years, and an athlete who has blossomed in the face of multiple coaching changes and years of well-documented, dysfunctional governance from Swimming NZ.

While Swimming NZ’s coaching ranks have been expanding in personnel, Boyle has become the latest athlete to move away from the national programme those coaches operate.

Top male swimmer Glenn Snyders has been based in California for more than a year. Others from the high-performance programme to leave include Shaun Burnett and Michael Mincham (who are both based in Australia – where Kiwi Olympian Matt Stanley is also a regular visitor for training).

World short-course swimming champion Boyle has confirmed to the Sunday Star-Times that her decision to change her coaching and training base was made only “four to five days” before leaving the country last Saturday. She had spent the previous 10 days remotely mapping out a work programme with Vergnoux.

Lyles, the Briton who was appointed national coach a year ago, initially directed a call from the Star-Times to Swimming NZ’s media personnel “because that’s how we do things in this country”, but then downplayed the haste of Boyle’s relocation, claiming the possibility had been discussed between himself, high-performance director Luis Villanueva and Boyle herself “for weeks.”

Swimming NZ chief executive Christian Renford was unable to complete an interview with the Star-Times on Friday. Renford agreed to continue the interview yesterday, but failed to respond to calls and voicemails.

It seems to me that the Miskimmin swim school, that costs the tax payer $1.4 million each year, is now coaching one swimmer that has qualified for an individual event at the Commonwealth Games. Over a million dollars for one swimmer – that must be cause enough to initiate a Review. Jan Cameron did way better than that. Duncan Laing did way better than that with no government money. A dozen coaches have done better than the current Miskimmin swim school. Good God, even the author of Swimwatch has done better than that.

Add to that the huge contradiction between Boyle’s account of making her decision in the “last four to five days” and Lyle’s account that Boyle’s escape had been discussed “for weeks”, and it becomes very difficult to know what to believe. My money is on Boyle’s version. I’m not sure, but I think Lyle was the one who told us that no one was sick in Arizona when Boyle was already back in New Zealand doing short, easy swims at the West Wave swimming pool; trying her best to recover from something.

And finally Miskimmin’s new CEO, Christian Renford, appears to be hiding from the press. According to Plumb, Renford fails to finish interviews and does not “respond to calls and voice mail”. If all that is true the Chairmen of the Swimming New Zealand Regions must do something about it. The care of the sport demands that they do. If their employee, the figurehead of the sport is dodging senior members of the press the Regions have a bound duty to take action.

Plumb’s questions needed answering. Renford is paid to provide those answers and according to Plumb’s account Renford did not do that. The wheels are coming off Miskimmin’s swimming empire. The Millennium concept is coming apart at the seams. The centralised model is failing faster than any of us could have imagined. The Regions have a duty of care. During their next conference call they must exercise that care. They must earn our trust.

Next week Swimwatch want to discuss the importance of turning Miskimmin’s performance and policies into an election year issue. Waste of these proportions needs to be subject to the democratic process.