On Wednesday I received the following email from the CEO of Swimming New Zealand (SNZ), Steve Johns.

I love these guys who begin their emails with phrases like, “I have been informed by a third party that you have had another outburst on your blog.” That’s a coded message designed to tell me Johns never reads Swimwatch. The truth is, Steve Johns does read Swimwatch. The implied lack of interest is simply not true.

He calls my interest in New Zealand swimmers being charged $5,300 to represent the country in a world Championships “another outburst” and a “vitriolic tirade”. That attitude says all we need to know about Steve Johns. It reeks of personal attack and arrogance. It demonstrates more clearly than I could ever put into words the heartlessness of the guy running Swimming New Zealand (SNZ). All we are asking is for 18 swimmers to have their costs paid. That is not an outburst or vitriolic. That is called caring.

And I am not alone. I see that Olympic Champion, Rhi Jeffrey, has expressed her support for the swimmers as has New Zealand open record holder and representative Jane Copland. I guess their outbursts are vitriolic as well. No, their views show they care about the sport that dominated their lives for two decades. They care about the welfare of those who are traveling the journey they once took. They care about words like justice and fair and right. Fact is Steve Johns is beginning to look like a self-centered, heartless hypocrite; happy to live on an inflated wage and starve the workers. As Rhi has said, no wonder New Zealand struggles to win a race. This whole episode has turned Johns and Francis into the laughing stock of world swimming. The world is wondering what sort of circus is going on down here. No one is impressed.

I confess Johns’ email is the first occasion I’ve been accused of being a coward. Steve Johns should have worked it out by now that I do not intend to interrupt my morning green tea (note to Johns – it is not coffee). If SNZ want to talk to me I’m happy to meet Bruce Cotterill. I’m not interested in the oily rag when the Chief Engineer is available.

However Johns’ last sentence did attract my attention. – “The door is open, the facts are here”. In addition to the facts being available, the SNZ High Performance Manager, Amanda White, assured us that SNZ is intent of delivering “100% transparency”. In this new spirit of openness could Steve Johns provide answers to the following questions?

SNZ has a number of members who have strong links to FINA. Because of their membership of FINA Committees Dave Gerrard and Lesley Huckins are the most obvious examples. But New Zealand also has a number of FINA list officials. Some of these are shown in the following table.

In addition to these nineteen names there may be others. I would appreciate Steve Johns emailing me with the names of any New Zealand FINA officials attending the 2018 World Championships. Because of the positions they hold on FINA Committees, I am especially interested in Lesley Huckins and Dave Gerrard. Are either of these officials attending the 2018 World SC Meet?

The reason for my interest is because if New Zealand officials are traveling to China to attend the accompanying FINA sessions, their travel will contrast starkly with the New Zealand swimmers making the same journey. Talk about master and slave – FINA and SNZ own that relationship.

In this case each official gets full travel and medical insurance, a business class airfare, 5-star accommodation, linking transport all the way, free meals for the duration and a daily allowance of between $120 and $500 plus, depending on what “level” they “serve” at, plus “gifts”, the stuff the sponsors supply to all delegates, including baseball caps, jackets, FINA uniform (for those who do need one as well as those who don’t need one – “please take the suit, Dr Gerrard – we need it for the group photo”).

The average delegate heading to China will account for a budget of around $7,000 and at the top end of the scale, for someone like Dave Gerrard you are looking at a budget of between $20,000 and upwards of $25,000 each.

That’s just to go to China, attend a couple of meetings, with coffee, biscuits, lunch and talk through an agenda set largely by FINA and then vote according to how they are ordered to do so, knowing that if you vote otherwise, you will simply be ignored and/or got rid of as soon as they can manage it.

No one will convince me that swimming in New Zealand is a healthy sport when 18 swimmers struggle to pay their own airfares and entry fees while the current President and past President swan about in business class airplanes and 5-star hotels. Because if Gerrard or Huckins are going that’s what the difference will be. That discrimination is not welcome in the sport or the country I call home.