StateOfSwimming - News and Views on the State of Swimming from Craig Lord and Guests

News

Hail The Day When The Criminal Kipke Is A Member Of The FINA Family No More At The Dawn Of Hope On Healing & Reconciliation

Editorial: The deed is not done yet but next month the ruling FINA Bureau will be asked by president Husain Al-Musallam to discuss and vote on stripping Dr. Lothar Kipke of the award he received from the international federation and […]

Craig Lord 2021-10-14 6 minutes

News

Mack The Knife Horton Off To Sharpen His Paris 2024 Blade: Its Goodbye Coach Craig Jackson, Hello Master Mentor Michael Bohl

Mack Horton, widely seen as a man who may well have kept the Olympic 400m freestyle crown on his head had he got past the taper test of Australian trials...

Craig Lord 2021-10-12 2 minutes

News

Make Way For The Aquatics Integrity Unit – Reform Committee Report In Full 7+ Years After Sweetenham Led Coaches Call For Change

More than seven years after Bill Sweetenham, the Australian coach mentor and guide to generations of Olympic teamsters and podium placers, led a plea for FINA to engage in a...

Craig Lord 2021-10-11 31 minutes

News

Settlement Talks Stall In League & Swimmers Vs FINA Dispute As Global Regulator’s Legal Bill Approaches $6 million

Settlement discussions have stalled in the costly legal dispute between the International Swimming League (ISL), Olympic swimmers bringing a class action and FINA, the global regulator being sued over governance...

Craig Lord 2021-10-11 11 minutes

News

RIP Shane Lewis – Whose Passing Reminds Us Of The Dark Depths Of Abuse In A Swimming Pool That Needs Dredging Yet

Shane Lewis, former Australian international, passed away aged 47 in February this year and while the coroner is yet to determine cause of death, his family believes it was suicide...

Craig Lord 2021-10-05 4 minutes

News

FINA Reform Group Hands Over Plan To Build ‘Athlete-Serving, Sustainable & Stronger Organisation’

Two days of FINA Reform Committee meetings concluded with former World champion and now athletes’ representative Britta Kamrau declaring: “After months of study, the Reform Committee has done a great...

Craig Lord 2021-10-05 3 minutes

News

In Memory of Nick Thierry, Father Of World Rankings & Swimming’s Great Altruist

On this day, as each October 2 every passing year since 2012, we remember Nick Thierry. It is the ninth anniversary of his death. The Father of World Rankings and publisher of...

Craig Lord 2021-10-02 11 minutes

News

The androgenisation of teenage girls during the GDR era - a pointer to key risks for women's sport in the gender debate - image courtesy NTCL Archive

Transgender Athletes: ‘Fairness & Safety Cannot Co-Exist’, So Create Universal Category Apart From Women, Says UK Sports Councils’ Equality Group

Transgender inclusion in sport could be improved by adding ‘open’ and ‘universal’ categories to male and female ones, the UK Sports Councils Equality Group (SCEG) states in new guidance. In...

Craig Lord 2021-09-30 5 minutes

News

When Aussie Swim Ace Michelle Ford Spoke The Athletes’ Voice For The First Time To Olympic Bosses With Coe & Bach

Michelle Ford, the Olympic 800m freestyle champion and bronze medallist behind two GDR swimmers in the 200m butterfly for Australia in 1980, shares extracts from her forthcoming autobiography on the...

Craig Lord 2021-09-28 13 minutes

News

Swimmers’ Alliance Seeks Peace & Power With FINA

On the 40th anniversary of the first time athletes got to address the International Olympic Committee with their concerns and their collective voice, the International Swimmers’ Alliance – ISA –...

Craig Lord 2021-09-28 2 minutes

News

LEN Leadership Rocked By Vote Of No Confidence & Call For New Elections Next February

The LEN Bureau, the governing body and regulator of European swimming and other aquatic disciplines, was rocked by a vote of no confidence at the weekend in a move that...

Craig Lord 2021-09-27 5 minutes

News

Katie Ledecky Leaves Stanford In Shift To Surinam Olympic Legend & Florida Gators Coach Anthony Nesty For Next Wave Of Her Career

Katie Ledecky, who added two gold and three silver medals to her growing-legend pantheon in the pool at the Tokyo 2020ne Olympic Games this summer, is moving to train with...

Craig Lord 2021-09-22 4 minutes

News

ISL Called Out For “Lightness Of Practice” By Former Commercial Head Of League & Ex-Manager Of Energy As Bills “Remain Unpaid”

The International Swimming League – ISL) – has been called out for “lightness of practices towards suppliers and employees” by two senior figures who resigned from from the pro-swim organisation...

Craig Lord 2021-09-17 2 minutes

News

Shayna Jack Free To Swim After CAS Backs 2-Year Over 4-Year WADA-Code Suspension

Australian sprinter Shayna Jack is free to return to swimming after an appeal lodged by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) was dismissed by the Court...

Craig Lord 2021-09-16 3 minutes

News

The Tale Of Tokyo & Hints Of A Change In An American Swim Season Of Plenty

An Olympic swim season like no other is well and truly behind us, the result book of the 32nd Olympiad sealed, the ripples from the Tale of Tokyo 202One on...

Craig Lord 2021-09-16 No comments 36 minutes

News

Kristof Milak Leaves Long-Time Coach Selmeci In Shift To Kapas Mentor Virth

Kristof Milak, the Olympic 200m butterfly champion, has switched coach, leaving behind his long-term mentor Attila Selmeci in favour of working with Balazs Virth, guide to Hungary’s other ‘fly World-title...

Craig Lord 2021-09-16 4 minutes

News

Sheikh’s Conviction – appeal pending – Raises Big ‘First 100 Days In Office’ Test of ‘New’ FINA Leadership

Sunday Editorial – This week marks the biggest test of the “review and reform” credentials of the established leadership figures still in charge at swimming regulator FINA but yet to...

Craig Lord 2021-09-12 8 minutes

News

Katie Ledecky & A Legend’s Perspective In The Space Between Loss, Loss, Gain, Retain

The exacting standards of Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky and where they led her and her sport to in a time of pandemic and heightened empathy and perspective at the Tokyo Olympic...

Craig Lord 2021-09-08 17 minutes