“Don’t just complain, generate ideas.”
Such are the words from two-time Olympic silver medalist, Markus Rogan, when speaking to SwimSwam about the current state of swimming in his home country of Austria.
A recent independent audit of the Austrian Swimming Federation’s inner-workings was handed over to the organization in 2014, which cast the spotlight on years of corruption and fund embezzlement by officials dating back to 2006. The federation, which at present time is lacking an official President, is facing claims for compensation of funds by former officials in the $600,000 range, after the audit revealed such practices as double bookkeeping and the maintaining of hidden accounts.
Although Rogan does not have an official position within the federation, the former short course world record holder feels strongly about leveling the playing field for Austrian swimmers. He felt compelled to get involved and do what he can in order to get the sport back on track. “We are so in so much trouble that it can’t get any worse”, Rogan tells SwimSwam when asked to summarize the aftermath of the financial scandal, “which is a fantastic opportunity for change.” he adds.
Rogan describes the situation as one where “the skills and quality of a federation’s athletes were growing exponentially faster than the skills and quality of the officials and managers.” According to Rogan, the Austrian Swimming Federation simply was “not prepared, not used to the increased funding that came with increased success, which led to the temptation of corruption.” Suspicion arose “when the government was allotting big funds to the federation and very little arrived at the athletes.”
The solution? Rogan, among others, are still weighing all of the options on how to rectify a broken system and get it running in a functioning manner again. For his part, Rogan says he “draws inspiration from the U.S. -it being a system that is transparent and credible.”
Rogan is focusing his work at a grassroots level: a simple email address – [email protected] is used to collect ideas of how to resolve the current situation and to put the focus back on the athletes. “We have received hundreds of ideas from all over Europe. Austrian lawyers are offering their time pro bono to re-write the federation’s by-laws and to examine the overall legal structure.”
“And I would love to hear American ideas as well”, Rogan says.
Since finishing graduate school, Rogan has worked as a researcher in UCLA’s department of psychology. The physical distance to Austria is “healthy, to keep a sober vantage point on this emotionally charged situation” Rogan says. Married since May 2014, he lives in Los Angeles and works with fortune 500 companies and the Brazilian Olympic team as a performance consultant. “My home swimming federation is a matter of the heart. We really don’t need any more complaints, we need ideas right now.”
Way to get this finally moving forward Marcus. Hope you are able to keep the direction positive and for the benefit of the athletes.
Markus swam at my pool Mansion House Club when he was a kid. His records are coming down though by two really fast kids, Ian Thompson and Andrew Revers. Amazing swimmer and great person!