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Repatriation And A Life Lost On FINA's Watch
Oct 28, 2010 - Craig Lord
Today is the day they deliver the body of Fran Crippen back to his family in the United States of America.
Today is a day of sorrow deeper than the oceans in which a world-class athlete served time and again as a role model for devotion, dedication, drive and much more. Out front in the race to make the most of life, a unique human being, an inspiration to others.
Every day I stop to watch our two young boys in those fleeting moments of calm twixt the rush of the hour, the clammer of timetables, school runs, tea time, play time, fun time, tantrum time and bed time. Today, I watched more closely. Depth of feeling unfathomable. Couple it to a haunting 'what if'.
What if every day we care, every day we nurture, every day we challenge, every day we share, every day we are tested, every day we fail and learn, every day, every hour, every minute, every waking second we love with all our heart and all our soul, year in and year out - and then when the child is a young man of 26, through no fault of his own, through what looks distinctly like a lack of true care and a failure to heed warnings, some of those provided by the very boy-now-man himself ... there is a knock at the door ... he's gone.
Unbearable.
Then a voice of self-defence says: "We are sorry that the guy died, but what can you do? This guy was tired and he pushed himself a lot."
Unbearable.
If only UAE Swimming Association executive director Ayman Saad had imagined Mr and Mrs Crippen standing by his side as he uttered those words, perhaps he would have remained silent as the grave that many feel was dug by a disaster waiting to happen.
I found myself not only watching but counting today. Counting the number of times in a day I say to two boisterous boys with no apparent fear and a need for exertion at every turn, 'be careful', 'watch out', 'stop' ... How come no-one was there to say those things to Fran Crippen when he needed so very much to hear them? How come no-one was there to help Christine Jennings when she needed to hear them?
Mercifully, she lived to tell the tale and will do so again today on two morning prime time TV shows in the US, CNN's American Morning and CBS's Early Show with Harry Smith: a tale of a swimmer who swam on her back unable to breath properly, vomiting and feeling dizzy for several minutes, in waters of 31-33C and surface air temperatures of 40C plus, hoping and praying someone would turn up to help her. No-one did. The curtains on the coastguard boat were drawn throughout the whole race, a witness to events tells us, the warning signs were there before the race, one of the most successful open water swimmers in the world tells us, the conditions were appalling, says the world No1 Thomas Lurz (GER).
How come a race could go ahead when managers and coaches had voiced serious concerns, not just this week but last year in the same region of the world and the year before that in the same place?
How come the race went ahead when one of the world's leading open water swimmers had swum a little over 5mins in training before getting out to say 'no way - this is too hot'?
How come the race went ahead without any apparent or meaningful response to the fears and concerns of athletes, coaches and managers aired at the pre-race technical meeting?
How come reports laden with warnings and filed to FINA did not result in a heightened sense of caution?
How come a concern expressed officially that a swimmer came close to drowning in a world title race of late led to this response: you're exaggerating.
Regardless of the findings that will tell us officially what clinical factors caused the death of Fran Crippen, the apparent lack of safety measures on the day and a failure to heed warnings and calls for change that dated back not days and weeks and months but years are bound to form a part of the inquiries underway in the US and internationally by FINA, which has so far not felt a need to call in independent investigators to run an arms-length inquiry of the kind many feel most appropriate given the ultimate severity of a case topped by two questions:
The answer to the first question must wait for full reporting of the facts, including the views of medical experts. The full answer to the second question may have to wait too a while but the evidence seen by SwimNews so far points at a loaf just about baked on one level: no, warnings were not heeded in a way that led to any change to the conditions swimmers and others had complained about.
It is entirely appropriate that this weekend is not devoted to justice but to dedication and prayer for Fran Crippen, his family, friends and community, as they endure their loss and celebrate the life of a son, brother, boyfriend, teammate, achiever.
His qualities, no surprise, can be found alive and kicking in his sister Maddy, a 2000 Olympic swimmer who will mourn and then come out fighting for truth and pressing for the changes that her brother had pressed for before his premature passing last Saturday.
The full "Keeping Score" column written by Christine Brennan at USA Today is the latest must read. As Brennan notes: Fran can no longer rally support for all that he had lobbied FINA to change - but his sister can, and will, and is likely to do so with overwhelming backing from the wider world swimming community. "For sure, Fran would have definitely been the loudest voice fighting for that person," Maddy Crippen told Brennan. "He gave impassioned speeches to athletes. He wanted to contribute. He would have rallied all the people he could."
The insensitive comments of officials who, on the day, ought to have confined their statements to "deep sorrow for this tragic death", have led USA Swimming CEO Chuck Wielgus to say: "It is absolutely inappropriate for anyone to be speculating on why Fran Crippen died until all the facts are in. It also is hard for me to comprehend faulting an athlete for trying too hard. The event organisers and sanctioning bodies have a responsibility to ensure that sporting events are conducted with the athletes' safety as an absolute priority."
As a CEO, Wielgus knows very well that the buck stops at the top of the heap at the most trying of times, when the questions include: did you know, and did you act. So far, no official word has indicated an acceptance of fault at FINA level. Understandable in lieu of inquiries underway. But should those inquiries point to faults on the day having contributed to the first death of an athlete in FINA competition and should those faults have been faults that Fran Crippen and others had warned FINA about, then make no mistake: senior heads must roll and a world swimming management revolution must follow.
Brennan notes: in a letter Fran wrote to swimming officials, he finished by saying, "There are many swimmers who are feeling the same way about these issues, and I would like to act as their voice on these matters." He can't. She [Maddy] will.
Meantime, The Fran Crippen Elevation Foundation is gaining support from far and wide. Here's where you can contribute:
For every dollar donated by USA Swimming staff, the federation will back that sum in donation of its own; masters in the US have been asked to donate via www.usms.org; while British Swimming has pledge a donation in an act that is likely to be replicated by many federations around the world.
On Saturday, the Virginia women's swimming team will not compete in the SMU Classic in Dallas so than Fran Crippen's sister Claire and other team members can attend the funeral. Fran Crippen concluded his collegiate career at Virginia in 2006. The Virginia men's swimming and diving team will observe a moment of silence tomorrow when they compete against Navy.
No news on whether FINA will hold a similar tribute to Fran Crippen at the World Cup in Berlin this Saturday but it might be an appropriate thing to do, Crippen having also been a pool swimmer of note and known to many of those who will gather in the German capital this weekend.
Saturday is a day of mourning.
Sunday is a day of rest and contemplation for a young life lost all too soon.
Monday brings a dawn that those holding the keys to guardianship at FINA may have reason to fear more than any ever feared by those at the helm throughout the organisation's roller-coaster 102-year history. A swimmer has died on the federation's watch. No words, no reports, no inquiries will ever change that.
Did FINA fail to live up to the only role that matters to its place in this world: guardian of aquatic sports athletes? In Perth 1991, every swimmer in the pioneer 25km world-title race had a boat and observer attached to them. Why was the same not true in UAE over 10km almost 20 years down the stream of open water evolution?
Did the guardian who ought to have been at Fran Crippen's side every stroke of the way for 10km last weekend desert his post?
