Swimming: Loader told he's not welcome to SNZ meeting

Danyon Loade. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Swimming great Danyon Loader was asked to leave the meeting organised by Swimming New Zealand to address regional discontent with the sport's board last Sunday.

The double Olympic gold medallist was in Wellington for the funeral of Bill Matson, an SNZ life member and former New Zealand representative on the world governing body FINA's board. While in the capital he also decided to attend the SNZ meeting at the Miramar Golf Club next to the airport.

Loader is also a life member of SNZ having earned three of New Zealand's seven swimming medals in Olympic history. Under SNZ's constitution he has rights to "speak but not vote" at meetings. It left a number of regional leaders irate that the best swimmer New Zealand has produced did not participate after they had welcomed his attendance.

The meeting was run by the Sparc-appointed advisors to the SNZ board, Kerry McDonald and Nelson Cull. Loader was keen to take an active part in proceedings but McDonald had a word with him and he left. With around 20 people in the room and a deadline to resolve matters by 4pm it was claimed there would not be sufficient time for his views to be heard.

Versions of events vary as to his exit or even admission. Some claim he was evicted from the room; others say he was refused entry. McDonald says it was nothing of the sort.

"I explained the circumstances to Danyon and said it was better if he wasn't at that meeting and that we could meet later. We've since done that on Friday afternoon and explored a few issues.

"Danyon's interests were entirely legitimate but I felt it was best to focus on the regions so they could have their say. It was not a forum where he'd have had a decent opportunity. Hopefully Swimming New Zealand can use him effectively in the future to tap into his knowledge on high performance swimming in particular."

The Herald on Sunday attempted to contact Loader through his employer, the New Zealand Olympic Committee, but was told he would not comment on the issue.

The incident is the latest in a series of recent public relations setbacks for Swimming New Zealand, highlighted by the Ineson report in June which exposed a lack of organisational and high performance leadership. Ultimately that threatens the sport's performance at its pinnacle event, the Olympic Games next year, as well as future Sparc funding.

A resolution is yet to be found in the regions' desire to have the current board resign and stand for re-election, thus earning a mandate to run the sport again. The board has been advised not to resign, courtesy of advice from McDonald and Cull, because it could further threaten swimming's Sparc funding. That in turn raises questions about how much Sparc is interfering in the sport's sovereignty to sort out problems independently.

With the regions remaining resolute in their demands for change they could hold a special general meeting soon to advance the issue; the other solution is to debate it further at the annual general meeting on September 25 in Wellington.