It appears that misbehaviour on the Australian team did not end once the Olympics concluded.
In an article in The Australian it is being reported that next week Alicia Coutts will appear in front of the integrity panel not to discuss what happened at the pre Olympic staging camp in Manchester, but to bring to light an incident that may have occurred at the BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series in January.
After the meet the country’s best 100 athletes and 74 staff attended a training camp on the Gold Coast, which many including Coutts felt was a great team building experience.
At the camp Head Coach Leigh Nugent introduced a new team behavioural protocol which overriding theme was that “I am a team member first before I am an individual.”
“We’ve set curfews, limited use of mobile phones when we’re together and told competitors to make sure they’re acting in a way to try to improve the team’s performance and not detract from it – and not just think about yourself,” Nugent told the Herald Sun in January.
It appears, if the reports are correct, that message came a few days too late for at least one swimmer.
The Australian reports that Coutts will not speak publicly about the incident, but it involved “inappropriate behaviour by a male swimmer to a female teammate.”