Sunday, September 24, 2000
Swimming News Online

Snelling refuses to take the blame

Sitting on a hillock outside the Olympic pool in Sydney, Deryk Snelling, a national performance director whose penchant for globe-trotting and topping up his tan once prompted someone to ask him if he was sponsored by Nivea, soaked up a little more sun.

Like the man who followed a muck cart and thought it was a wedding, he smiled and said: “Isn’t this lovely. Doesn’t get any better.” It better had, or Britain might as well close the doors to every pool in the kingdom.

When Snelling came to Britain in the ashes of Atlanta in late 1996 he said that the national team could “win 32 gold medals” in Sydney. He was reminded that there were only 32 gold medals to win. His reply was blunt: “Anything can happen at the Olympic Games.”

It did. Britain got nothing, and will return home empty handed for the first time since 1936, when Hitler’s armies walked abroad and the effects of the depression still tempered athletic performance.

Snelling takes no blame because he believes there is no blame to be taken. Nor will be take a bonus, according to David Sparkes, the chief executive of the Amateur Federation of Great Britain. “Snelling has to carry the can,” said Sparkes. “I don’t mind if he thinks that,” said Snelling to the messenger. “It would just have been nice to hear it from him first.”

The exchange summed up the sour mood between the two men, one the coach who wanted a bottomless coffer, the other a bureaucrat who needs a bottomless coffin in which to hide Britain’s aquatic embarrassment before he returns to explain to his lottery paymasters just what went wrong.

Faced with the question “do you think 10 personal best times from 41 swimmers, one of the three largest contigents at the Games, and just one individual national record represents a failure?”, Snelling said: “No, I don’t think so - It’s like an accident. You’re doing everything right, you’re in control of what you’re doing and then someone comes at you from the side.”

Though it does not explain much of Britain’s failure to live up to expectations in Sydney, Snelling’s comment summed up the presence of certain critical factors affecting the world aquatic order - among the victims nations such as Germany, Europe’s leader - in Sydney.

There were 15 world records and of the 40 Olympic records, 17 were established in qualification rounds. Standards were blisteringly high; apply the times swum by British swimmers in Sydney to Atlanta and one gold and two medals in each of the other hues would now be winging their way back to national shores. In the face of that, Britain’s “big hitters - Palmer, Parry, Rolph, Sheppard, Don-Duncan, Foster and Hickman - just didn’t live up to expectations, said Snelling.

There was also the factor that dare not speak its name, what Snelling referred to as “people doing things we wouldn’t condone”. He refused to be drawn - with not a little good legal reason - on who that might be but said: “I was one of those who gave Michelle Smith the benefit of the doubt. I stuck to that until she was caught. Now I feel differently about her. But you can’t accuse people until they test positive. There is speculation about the Italians and the Dutch but there is no proof and they’ve given these Games a real lift.”

That rival nations are popping pills and potions is not in any doubt. The Americans admitted as much through the “not remotely illegal” work of Glen Luepnitz, the Texan who prescribes products that increase the natural production of human growth hormone four-fold overnight. As Paul Palmer put it: “We are so naive on these things - we really have to look at what’s going on out there.”

But is there not a responsibility that goes with that, Snelling is asked. “I think its a massive responsibility,” he said. “We give hGH to small kids who need it to grow not to the average guy who wants to be stronger. It’s a very interesting area that requires us to research...we should not do anthing that would damage the health of our children.”

Beyond the substances, there are the statistics. “The relays were magnificent, every one producing a national record. If we had swum the times we did here back in Atlanta we would be going home with 1 gold, 2 silvers and 2 bronze medals. We have done a remarkable job in a number of areas but it will take time to get it right.”

He then suggests that Britain, with only three more finalists than it had four years ago, is on a par with Germany and Australia as far as the statistics go. Germany, which suffered a terrible Games, yes. But Australia? He must be joking: 4 world records, the 6 Olympic records, the 12 Commonwealth records, the 16 national records, the 26 personal best times, the myriad finalists and the 18 medals, five of them gold. Dream on Britain.

Snelling is correct when he says Britain is “in division two and looking to get into the premier league” when it comes to long-course (50m) racing. He also speaks the truth when he says that time was not on his side and that progress has been significant both in terms of administrative change and development in the pool. Time will also tell whether he is right to claim that he is a “genius”.

It certainly did not show in Sydney. But then neither did Australian success show for at least 12 years after instituting the sorts of changes now going on in Britain. After just hree years of professionalism, the patient is no longer sick. But convalescence is far from over now is no time to stop paying the bills that Bill Sweetenham, the Australian who takes over from Snelling next month, will need paying. Success will not come cheap.

Craig Lord
The Times