The Official Swimming Thread

[El Guapo]

John Rudd gone bang!

Well, he's actually off to benefit from some serious sportswashing by taking up the role of Saudi National Director.

Hard to begrudge him the chance of a mega-wedge ($1.5MM p.a. allegedly). He's put in 8 years in Ireland and has transformed the sport here. Largest ever team qualified for Paris - medals, finals and every single swimmer qualified for a semif-final at a minimum. Right down to 8-yr olds, the format of swimming and structure of competions in Ireland bears his stamp.
The big danger now is that hell take the regional coaches with him too.

Meanwhile, watch out for the number of swimmers working the residency rule to move to Saudi. Right now, their standard is dire and I wonder will there be a women's team.

Big loss I presume the Irish job would be fairly attractive at this point?

One of my Rowing buddies was telling me they are struggling to get a replacement for Maurogiovinni because and I quote "yer wan is such a cunt"

2 fellas have turned it down and Dominic Casey is too bloody odd for it acco to yer man

 

[BlackpoolTerrier]

Big loss I presume the Irish job would be fairly attractive at this point?

One of my Rowing buddies was telling me they are struggling to get a replacement for Maurogiovinni because and I quote "yer wan is such a cunt"

2 fellas have turned it down and Dominic Casey is too bloody odd for it acco to yer man

It depends on your point of view - there'd be lads who'd think that you would never hit the heights of Paris so they might waiti until next time around. Rudd took on a lot of vested interests to get what he needed for the swimmers and to build the best program. There's always the danger of sliding back into the bad old days too.

Meanwhile, I raced against Dominic back in the day - he was a hardy bastard, tough out and very much his own man. An outstanding coach but I dunno would he be any sort of fit for the politics of the national role. Same for the Rudd job - you don't necessarily need a great coach in the role - but you definitely need a lad who will hire, develop and lead a team of great coaches.

 

[El Guapo]

This seems like a bit if a hit piece

Olympic gold swimmer left ‘broken’ by coach's harsh regime and weight comments

Gold medallist Ruta Meilutytė describes toxic training environment under esteemed trainer Jon Rudd at top swim club.

www.bbc.com

Saying he should have known about the activities of a convicted paedophile prior to allegations being made is harsh in the extreme..

The thing about weight management and body composition has come up loads of times in the last few years. I just think the world has moved on hugely even since 2012 on that front and that stuff was commonplace then, perhaps that doesn't make it right but it was a fact of coaching

 

[BlackpoolTerrier]

Well, as we know, that sort of behaviour can be all too common in swimming. Denmark are no longer a force in the pool due to a similar exposé. Their issues happened around the same time - bunch of talented female swimmers, strong coach and a tough regime. One side takes it too far, the other side takes the comments too seriously, etc.

The thing is, you can say “your arse is fat” to just about any male athlete at any level and nobody bats an eyelid - not even the athlete. You simply can’t get away with speaking to a female like that. Managing and developing female athletes can often be a much more complex challenge. Don’t forget there was similar claims of oppression from Sanita Puspure a few months ago (although not directly weight-related).

Look at Serena Williams - she was effectively obese for the last five years of her career but if any journo ever mentioned it they’d be cancelled and sacked on the spot. Imagine if Roger Federer sprouted a pair of love handles while still playing at the top level - it’d be all over the media.

Fairly lazy journalism from the BBC though, to ignore Rudd’s successful tenure in Ireland and the team of top coaches that he built here. Male and female swimmers appear to be thriving. It’s a fine line - Rudd pissed off an awful lot of people in Swim Ireland but his approach to the whole thing was exactly what was needed here at the time.

Agree that the high-performance world has long since moved on from the culture of 2012. However, there’ll always be plenty of victims in high performance sport and plenty of non-sporting journos to only see one side of the story.

 

[cactus jack]

Wiffen donates €29k Olympic legacy fund to former school

Olympic gold medalist Daniel Wiffen has given his £25,000 from an Olympic grant to his former school to help fund a gym, its principal has said.

www.rte.ie

 

[Browser Brody]

Was’nt there talk of a 50m pool in Cork recently?