Swimming Australia stands by its president over World Aquatics stoush

The Swimming Australia board is standing by its president Chris Fydler as he defends allegations made by World Aquatics.

CEO Rob Woodhouse says Swimming Australia would support Fydler as he denies and defends allegations made by the World Aquatics Integrity Unit (AQIU).

The Swimming Australia board recently sought clarity on World Aquatics’ board nomination process in response to correspondence issued by Oceania Aquatics.

This led the Swimming Australia board to not nominate a candidate for the World Aquatics board. It is this same process which is under review, and which is the subject of AQIU’s allegations.

Woodhouse says the Swimming Australia board is in full support of Fydler, who has requested the matter be referred to the World Aquatics Adjudicatory Body. He also says that Swimming Australia had worked closely and extensively with World Aquatics in recent months to find a way forward with constitutional change underpinned by good governance.

“Given the pending hearing, we cannot comment any further but can confirm that Swimming Australia fully supports Chris,” he says.

Olympic gold medallist and a qualified lawyer Fydler, who was awarded life membership of Swimming Australia in 2020, was also a board member of Swimming Australia from 2006-2010, and a member of the FINA’s (World Aquatics) Disciplinary Panel from 2009-2017 and Ethics Panel from 2018-2023.

In addition to serving as President of Swimming NSW, he was Deputy Chef de Mission for the Australian Olympic team at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and served on the Board of the NSW Institute of Sport from 2017-2023.

“Chris’s leadership these past six months has been exceptional and he has been front and centre of our green and gold strategic review,” says Woodhouse.

A complex issue

Respected sports journalist Tracey Holmes on her YouTube channel The Sports Commentator suggests this long, problematic and complex issue is related to the world body insisting on placing its representative on the Australian board – and that it has developed into a stoush between two former Australian swimming champions who were also teammates at three Olympics.

Former world champion and three-time Olympian Matt Dunn, a successful businessman, is a second vice president at World Aquatics and is in line to potentially become president in time for Brisbane 2032. Olympic and world champion Chris Fydler, a lawyer who was elected president of Swimming Australia in May, could still be in that position at the time of Brisbane 2032.

Holmes quotes inside sources as saying the integrity unit investigation initially began into Swimming Australia before Fydler was elected president, but has since morphed into an investigation into him. The integrity investigation into Fydler could potentially result in his suspension from all swimming body duties.

Holmes says the sources told her that in 2023, World Aquatics threatened to expel Swimming Australia for lack of movement in changes to its governance, including greater athlete voting power – but also their resistance to the requirement that Dunn, as a board member of the world body, must also sit on Swimming Australia’s board. A compromise solution failed, and Swimming Australia conceded to the world body’s demands.

However, Swimming Australia, having earlier been a part of a unanimous vote on the part of Oceania Aquatics to nominate Matt Dunn to stand again for the world body, was now asking for that vote to be recast. Holmes’s sources believe it is this development that prompted World Aquatics to start an investigation into Swimming Australia’s role in challenging what had already been endorsed.

Seen as further agitation against the world body, that investigation then became centred on Fydler, who had since become Swimming Australia’s president after a short stint as interim Chair.

Holmes also suggests a vote is planned to remove a clause in the constitution of the world body that would mean the national bodies no longer have to nominate a board member who sits on the continental body, yet they will be obliged to accept them on their own national board – even if they didn’t support their nomination.

SPLASH! requested clarification from Swimming Australia but had not received a reply at the time of writing.