Oh God – Swimming New Zealand might lose some funding because their swim team didn’t achieve at the FUBAR Games!
What can they do to get back in SPARC’s good books?
Ooh, ooh, Daniel Bell had a couple of beers after the competition finished. Let’s make him a scapegoat and show SPARC we meet the ‘host responsibility’ part of our funding agreement.
And they did. They sent silver medallist Bell home after he had a couple of beers.
News reports cited Bell as having a number of alcohol-related issues – all after he had competed and competed to the best of his ability.
If I had to swim five to 10km a day, train in the gym, put my life on hold for a significant period, and then win a silver medal, I think I might feel like a beer too.
But no. The wowsers at Swimming NZ have a total alcohol ban. So never mind the fact that Bell has just finished his competition; he’s not allowed to have a beer.
I’d love to know how far this goes. Does Swimming NZ ask all their elite swimmers where they will be over Christmas and New Years so they can put private investigators on the job?
What happens if Moss Burmester’s uncle offers him a beer at the Xmas BBQ? Will the Swimming NZ jackboots come down on his future?
According to the mainstream media, Swimming NZ CEO Mike Byrne “acknowledged Bell had alcohol issues, which needed to be addressed”.
For God’s sake. He’s got sozzled twice in three years. What did you do when you were under 25? (Wowsers need not reply).
Swimming NZ illustrates a major problem with the seriously ****ed up priorities in our society.
The court system will give name suppression and a fine to an All Black, who whilst drunk, assaulted his pregnant wife. A drink-driver, with 17 previous convictions, kills someone driving drunk. And gets four years in jail. The punishment for these offences rarely fits the crime – in society’s eyes anyway.  They are light and generally ineffective.
But Swimming NZ visits the Spanish Inquisition on a kid who had a couple of beers after God knows how many months of training flat out for a silver medal.
Swimming NZ needs to look at itself. Do they really want a 2012 Olympic chance to say “shove it”? What a waste of a decade of training and funding.
Daniel Bell has got pissed a couple of times. Lots of people do it (some every week – look at Courtenay Place on a Friday), and like him, don’t hurt anyone. They wake up the next day and get on with things. He hasn’t hurt anyone. He’s had a few. He’s blown off steam. Just like tens of thousands of others do every week with no lasting issues other than a headache and the dry horrors.
He is making headlines because of a stupid policy by a stupid national sporting body. What did the Southland Times say?
“Commonwealth Games hero (cyclist) Eddie Dawkins was looking forward to a cold Speights and a good night’s kip last evening...”
Gee. Lucky he’s not a swimmer.
Swimming NZ needs to get real and appreciate that young people with friends will want to do what their friends are doing when they’re not in training. Cut Daniel Bell some slack, and maybe you’ll get a better swimmer in 2012 – not a bitter and twisted robot.
Kia kaha Piri Weepu –the only viable alternative to Jimmy Cowan. Here’s hoping the doctors work their magic and have him back as soon as possible.