Elite swimmers seek urgent funding

There have been renewed calls for Ireland's elite swimmers to become eligible for State funding again following last week's handout of over £925,000 by the Irish Sports Council to 170 high-performance athletes. No money went to the Team 2000 swimmers who hope to make the Sydney Olympics.

Grants were, however, given to three disabled swimmers, prompting a response from able-bodied swimmers that a mechanism could easily be found to restore funding to the dozen or so athletes who are suffering because of the ministerial edict that swimming should receive no Government finance. The Minister, Dr McDaid, as recently as last week stated that the Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA) would receive nothing until the organisation had "cleaned up its act" in the wake of sex abuse scandals involving two former Olympic coaches, George Gibney and Derry O'Rourke.

Swimmers are not arguing that funding be restored to the parent body, but that a mechanism should be put in place to assist them while the IASA disbands and reconstitutes itself, a process which could take several months. A new association, IASA Ltd, is to be formed and a new executive elected.

Mairead Berry, who has Cerebral Palsy and is categorised as world class, received £5,500, while Deafsport candidate John Kealy, also a world class swimmer, was allocated £4,000. David Malone (22), from the Irish Wheelchair Association, was issued with a £10,000 grant as a world class swimmer.

"I keep on trying to find answers why he (Dr McDaid) cannot find a mechanism of administering grants through some other body other than the IASA," said Irish swimmer Nick O'Hare.

"A lot of time an effort went into the Murphy Report and Irish swimming and all swimmers would be supportive of the report. It would take just a fraction of effort for someone to be briefed on the elite squad and to administer the money through some organisation, like the Dublin International Sports Council (DISC) - anybody."

Disabled athletes apply for grants through their own organisation, but some, such as archer Grace Caughan, who recently returned home from the Paralympic games with a silver medal, are as capable as able-bodied athletes. Others, such as Malone, swim with the American College in Dublin and also Terenure swimming club. Terenure are affiliated to the IASA.

There are 14 on the Team 2000 squad, all of whom are classified in the top 100 world rankings. Further anxiety within the squad stems from the fact that preparation for the Sydney games must start soon, and there is no guarantee that the changes made within the IASA will ultimately satisfy the Minister. Therefore, swimmers are unable even to estimate how long it may take to resolve the problem.

While the swimmers' clamour for funding might be construed from outside as self-centred and indelicate in the light of the lasting damage and the tragic history of their association over the last number of years, O'Hare is supportive of what the Murphy Report recommends and the need to change the IASA. In tandem, it is argued that the swimmers are primarily the people who have suffered most already. But an important question is percolating through: do the IASA really know what Dr McDaid is looking for?

"The impression we get is that the IASA don't really know what the Government wants," O'Hare said. "They are trying to implement elements of the Murphy Report and then hope that the funding will be restored. But instead of pointing the finger, he's (Dr McDaid) trying to push them. Obviously people have to leave the IASA of their own accord."

It seems the Government, through John Treacy and the Irish Sports Council, are extremely reluctant to deal with individual athletes. They maintain that funding must go through national governing bodies. The point now is that if a governing body does not exist (the entire executive of the IASA have voted to resign and disband the organisation), what happens?

Somewhat poignantly, the call from swimmers comes in the week 14-year-old Florry O'Connell established himself as one of Ireland's best young competitors when he won gold and silver in the British Age Group Championships.

The young Kerry swimmer was so impressive in the 100 and 200 metres butterfly that he was invited to join the British team's high-performance swimming camps. O'Connell will receive funding to cover accommodation and training costs in Edinburgh, Sheffield or Portsmouth. That money will come from the ASA, the British swimming association.