The full investigation conducted nearly two years ago into Swimming Australia’s treatment of women and girls has been revealed and the findings are harrowing.
In December 2021, investigators Chris Ronalds, Katherine Bates and Alex Parker issued a 114-page review that found female athletes and coaches had been subjected to physical and mental abuse, groping, sexual innuendo, and body shaming in Australian swimming.
Swimming Australia didn’t publically release the full report—instead issuing a response that didn’t fully confront all of the issues presented—claiming that it couldn’t make the review public due to confidentiality.
However, a leaked version of the report now shows that no one is identified, leading to questions as to why Swimming Australia refused to publish the findings.
The review, entitled “Beneath The Surface: The Experience of Women and Girls In Swimming,” heard from 158 participants in the sport, ranging from swimmers to coaches, officials, volunteers and administrators.
The Herald Sun has seen a leaked version of the report that sheds light on many troubling findings, including abuse claims and statements from anonymous survivors.
The Findings Included:
- Multiple reports indicated that skinfold tests and weigh-ins were used to body shame and publically humiliate swimmers, leading to eating disorders, self-harm and quitting the sport. “I wasn’t a naturally thin girl and I starved myself because the coach told me my body would ‘look more palatable’ to selectors,” one swimmer said.
- “What am I going to do with your big f—king hips,” one swimmer was told. “You’re fat and that is why you are slow. Lay off the dessert.”
- Swimming Australia was found to rarely selects a female to be a part of their coaching staff at major international events—they had zero female coaches on the staff at the Tokyo Olympics where women won eight of the nine gold medals in the pool. “I don’t see how they can justify not taking a single woman,” one coach said. “We have several who are of that standard, but they get overlooked because it’s just a big boys’ club.”
- One swimmer said seeing an all-male (and old male) coaching staff at the Games made her “blood boil.” A senior Swimming Australia staff member had said that no female coaches met the criteria for selection.
- A full section of the report was devoted to the swimmer-coach relationships within the sport which was found to be similar to a parent-child dynamic—with the coach in a dominant, controlling position.
- “I will always wonder how I let this happen to my daughter,” one parent said. “I should have spoken up, but instead I trusted the coach would help her realize her dreams. When she complained about her treatment, I told her: ‘This is the best thing for her swimming.’ I now watch her in and out of therapy, battling an eating disorder – I think I ruined in her life.”
- Male coaches didn’t want to talk about or understand the symptoms that female athletes were going through on their menstrual cycles.
- Female coaches reported having their best athletes poached by other clubs or teams, hurting their chances of being named to a national staff.
- Young female swimmers reported being touched inappropriately by male training partners and not feeling comfortable reporting it to male coaches. “With few female coaches around, the male coaches get very egotistical, which starts the toxic boys club and has a hugely negative impact,” one swimmer said.
- Swimmers or staff who were gay were told to hide it.
- Most participants subjected to abuse gave up rather than reporting it because they didn’t trust the governing body.
- Respondents said that they felt “abandoned” and “absolutely disgusted” at the lack of support shown them by Swimming Australia after disclosing personal mental and physical health challenges.
It’s also worth noting that Olympic medalist Maddie Groves went public with allegations in December 2021 that she was sexually abused as a teenager by a man who was still working in swimming.
Former Swimming Australia President Kieren Perkins came under fire for comments he made shortly after the investigation opened discouraging whistleblowers from coming forward, though the scrutiny only became public in recent days.
During a radio interview shortly after the Tokyo Olympics, Perkins unintentionally steered away witnesses by reinforcing fear that complaints would not be taken seriously.
“Swimming is in a great place at the moment,” he said at the time. “That doesn’t mean that we’re perfect, it doesn’t mean there’s not challenges, but to suggest that there’s some kind of deep endemic issues is miles away from the mark– I defy anyone to suggest there’s a culture issue in swimming at the moment.”
THE RESPONSE
Swimming Australia issued a press release on Saturday responding to the leaked report, vowing its commitment to the 46 recommendations made in the initial response in early 2022.
“It is important to highlight that much work has been done, both before the report was delivered and since, to create a better environment for our athletes, and equip our coaches and support staff with the best tools available, and we will continue to commit to the change to make our sport a safe and inclusive environment,” the organization said.
“It is important to note, there have been great strides in the past two years in response to this report and as an organization we will continue to honor the confidentiality guaranteed to participants.
“The themes of the report are clear in the recommendations and provide public accountability for our steps forward, as documented on our website.”
Swimming Australia said it considered making the full report public but “decided against release due to the significant risk to the confidentiality, and potentially mental health, of those that provided input.”
The governing body added that high-performance coaches have received education on women’s health issues, that it has published guidelines on managing eating disorders, and said there has been a female coach on every senior and junior staff since Tokyo and they’re “committed to continuing the focus on the development of female coaching pathways and identifying and removing barriers in the system.”
Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser was among the high-profile names to speak out following the news coming out, with the four-time Olympic champion saying that she’s “very disappointed in the way that Swimming Australia is being handled.”
“It’s terrible, it’s very embarrassing,” said the 86-year-old Fraser, according to The Australian. “I’ve had a couple of young girls – 14 or 15 years of age – come up to me and tell me ‘my coach says I’m too fat’.
“I ask them if they’ve reported it but they say ‘I’m too frightened’. I tell them to not be frightened because I’ll back them up … you’ve got to speak up and be very strong with the words that you use.”
Fraser called for change atop the organization despite it having an incredibly high turnover in leadership in recent years.
Swimming Australia will look to dig itself out of a different jam, voting to implement a new constitution that will prevent a ban from World Aquatics, on October 20.
I think things have improved (clearly not enough) – but the homophobia in Australian swimming was extensive enough that I had no idea that three of my fellow junior team members were gay until years later.I’m talking late 1990s here. It was just push, push, push it away in order to fit in. To be clear, I’d still rather have grown up and come out as gay in Australia than most parts of the world. But no-one should kid themselves that this is an inclusive sport yet, despite the efforts of some brave individuals.
This seems to be a major issue in a lot of sports in general still, both in Australia and worldwide, especially for men. Let’s say, conservatively, 5% of the population is part of the LGBT community (stats show it’s much higher). I can think of 3 active swimmers who are openly gay/bi (Henique, Sullivan, Thormeyer) out of the hundreds I could name off the top of my head. There are no openly gay/bi men in the top 100 of tennis (although there are a few women). Women’s soccer is full of lesbians but gay/bi men in soccer are essentially non-existent.
It’s ironic how so many incredible female swimmers flourished in the misogynistic swimming program in Australia! Is that just an example of athletes overcoming adversity?
Flourished? Perhaps they swam fast, but if they’re still dealing with eating disorders and ptsd from abusive coaching (which it sounds like many are) is it worth that type of “flourishing”? At what point is the cost of winning too high? And at what point do adults need to step in and protect those immature minds who would answer ‘no cost is too high’?
Does anybody know what period of time and location the respondents were active within Swim Australia?
I’m sure it’s multiple years and dates, just curios what that looks like.
I believe Swim Australia is a little bit decentralized into the AIS systems and clubs?
So is this recent, is it specific locations, is there a history of this, how far back does that history go, etc, etc
From another article published in the Courier Mail it said that “the scope of this review was limited to a five-year-window, from 2016-21″
It’s interesting. What if losing pools isn’t what’s really causing swimming membership to dip, but the fact that two two best swim countries in the world are not safe places for young women? We saw how concussions in football lead to less football players since the release, this could be a huge driving factor that swimming AUS and USA swim will of course not acknowledge as to why we are losing numbers. Wake the f*ck up.
Fix yer sheet, Aussies!
and all of your nations the same things, it is just hidden. just think all of those people destroyed by the system…..
When will Cate Campbell enter into all of this Aussie discussion – soon, I hope! She had more than enough to say about how she loathes US swimmers in the past; so, I am literally breathless until I hear from her about all of this dirt finally seeing the light of day in the press. Now, she REALLY has something to complain about that is actually worth complaining about. . . . .
I’m actually impressed at your ability to make this issue somehow about a cowbell. Top points for being self-absorbed.
Cate has spoken numerous times about body shaming in the sport, including in her book, and I presume that her story was very likely one of the ones that Swimming Australia heard as part of the investigation.
As she has spoken about some of these problems in the past, as you state, it should be relatively easy to condemn Aussie officialdom about the terrible manner in which this report has been handled. I hope she does.
She actually has talked about this particular issue in the past, and your hatred and ignorance make you look like a fool.
No hatred in my heart, really. I simply want someone who has the time to go on an international tirade against US athletes to take the time – once again — to express her disgust with the manner this report has been handled. Ignorance, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I’m fine, thanks.
International tirade? It was an interview that was all in jest, for heavens sake.
Hardly in jest, my friend. She had to have fellow teammates defend her! That is, IMHO, not in jest. It’s just verbal venom.
The teammates that defended her did so on the basis that what she said was in jest. Even Kaylee, who criticised her, acknowledged that what she said was meant to be funny (albeit it wasn’t funny). Let’s be clear, what Cate said wasn’t funny and didn’t need to be said, but she was trying to be funny/tongue in cheek. As is usual these days, too many people then over-reacted as though her comments were deathly serious. And in your case, attempt to misquote her and pretending it was a tirade.
International tirade?
She was asked in an interview by a local media, and it was all in good fun.
Think about how the rest of the world suffered from everything recent former US president spewed on daily basis for the last 8 years.
You are clearly misquoting Cate. Disagree with her all you like, but she didn’t say that she loathed anyone. She made some general references to “sore losers”, said that at some meetings she was sick of hearing the Star Spangled Banner and expressed her dislike for cow bells. She has also been a consistent critic of body shaming and an advocate for mental health awareness. So she has complained about things that really matter, many times.
Because I don’t cite quotations, but rather paraphrase, I don’t think this comment needs further elucidation.
You said that Cate said she loathes American swimmers. Don’t use the paraphrasing excuse – she didn’t say anything like that.
Au contraire, ma chère amie, c’est exactement le but de ses commentaires !
It appears your understanding of French is better than your understanding of English. You are doing nothing but trolling by claiming she intended to say she loathed any American. She said she had been at previous meetings sick of hearing the US anthem and didn’t like cowbells.
Mike in Dallas is simply playing the role of Ugly American, and doing it pretty well. I can’t believe he’s actually serious with most of his comments – maybe just a poor attempt at humor?
While I was a little young for the first run of the novel [The Ugly American is a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer] I certainly am familiar with it. No, this is not an attempt at satire/humor nor is it the actions of uncouth Americans – just the facts, ma’am; just the facts.
Don’t confuse opinions with facts!
I apologize for not putting quotations marks around my last comment “just the facts, ma’am” but it is such a famous line by actor Jack Webb’s character Joe Friday in “Dragnet” that I thought the world knew it – my bad – I slipped up.
The report needs to be released publicly in its entirety. There is no reasonable explanation (other than cover-up to protect some SA administrators and gold-medal coaches) not to release the report. At the time the report was completed, the commission that authored the report stated that there were no issues of confidentiality that should block its full release.