The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has formally taken up protest with FINA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding the late start time of the swimming events scheduled for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Two weeks ago, it was reported that the swimming portion of the meet would start at 1PM local time for prelims and 10PM local time for finals, which puts it into prime-time for American television coverage (beginning at 9 Eastern on the American east coast).
Those timelines, however, will be out of the norm from what athletes are used to, with prelims starting around 10AM and finals around 6PM (give-or-take on both sessions) being the norm.
The current schedule would have swimming finish after midnight on the athletes’ body clocks, most of whom will hope to be adjusted to the new time zone by the time competition starts.
While the AOC acknowledges that this would have finals start at a “leisurly” 11AM locally, they’re concerned about what will happen for their athletes. The AOC says that it will be supporting an alternative scenario where finals could start at 7:30 PM local time instead.
While the AOC wasn’t outwardly critical of the later time slot in their release on the matter (that also included a discussion of a few morning finals in athletics), the tone was clear and more outward statements were made by AOC president John Coates in the media.
“It’s a matter that the AOC will now take up with the international swimming body FINA and with the International Olympic Committee,” Coates told reporters on Friday. “It’s just an unreasonable demand on the athletes to be competing at that time of night.”
Coates also echoed the public statements by the IOC that Rio preparations, once deemed to be well behind schedule, have sufficiently progressed where there is confidence that everything will be prepared well in advance of the opening ceremonies in 2016.
Not good for the athletes. The Aussies have a right to be vex
Agree it is outrageous from the standpoint of the athletes….but since when are the Olympic Games about the athletes? They are a platform for making money….if the games are not popular…no one makes money. Keep in mind…the only reason swimmers have any chance of making a living off swimming is the fact that the games exist to actually highlight the sport every few years. Otherwise, there would be no money in it at all. Thus the best thing to do may be suck it up and do everything possible to keep the Olympic Games relevant….winter games are already loosing that battle. Unfortunately for athletes, they may need to stay awake swimming in the Olympic Village rather than staying awake partying.
It’s again very laughable.
10 PM for swimming finals to make American televisions happy. Great for the athletes! 😥
And yesterday we learned that 8 more track and field finals will be in the morning to make the European televisions happy. Great for the athletes! 😥
Shameful.
But after what happened in Beijing, nothing surprises me anymore.
Wow! 10 PM! For us here in France it means 3 AM!
It will be hard but when you love, you don’t count the cost. 🙂