John Leonard, director of the American Swimming Coaches Association and co-opted member of the FINA coaches commission, has urged the international federation to desist from asking commercial entities how to run the sport of swimming - and asked suit makers to demand better governance from a federation that ought to tell them the rules of the sport as demanded by the key players that keep the show up and running: swimmers and coaches.
In at open letter you can read at the ASCA website, Leonard, recently honoured by the International hall of Fame, makes four excellent points (full details on the ASCA website), namely:
- 1. FINA has to stop asking for “input” from the commercial side of our sport. The “Commercial side” does not and SHOULD NOT make the rules. The Federations and the athletes and coaches they represent make the rules, like they did last July. Was this somehow not clear last July? What part of 168-4 did you not understand?
- 2. Swimsuit companies need to be concerned with better governance from FINA. Tell FINA not to ask them for rules, but TELL the companies the rules under which they will produce suits and learn to make a profit. The companies are in business to make a profit and should only be limited by the rules….which are made by the Federations.
- 3. Any sustainable business model includes the business being concerned with the long-term viability of the marketplace. We know that $600-$900 swimsuits will gradually kill the base of the sport. Then we become the size of gymnastics and shrinking every year. “Profit” is not the problem. Short Term Profit, at the expense of long-term growth of the sport, is a HUGE problem.
- 4. If the swimsuit companies want to be partners with the swimming world, then focus on long-term growth and sustainable profits.
Leonard's message to FINA is one that the federation's president, Dr Julio Maglione, understands well and has, to some extent, stated in his own words.
But as 2008 and 2009 taught the sport, understanding is not enough. Action speaks louder than words. How many gatherings of coaches and active athletes are invited at regular intervals to attend meetings in Lausanne to give of their opinion about the running of the sport. For that matter how many broadcasters around the world (and it is their money and the money of license and fee payers around the world, and often public money at that, which makes up the bulk of FINA's revenue) get invited to give of their opinion as regularly as suit makers do?
Leonard hits the nail on the head: it is not for FINA to ask what the suit makers want - it is for FINA to tell them what they can expect.
