Four members of the elite Irish swimming squad had discussions this week with the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) with a view to receiving interim funding from the council while sports minister Dr Jim McDaid decides on when best to release money into swimming through the Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA). This is not expected to happen for several months.
International swimmers Nick O'Hare, Chantal Gibney, Colin Lowth and Adrian O'Connor met the OCI delegation, which included council president Pat Hickey and OCI members Dermot Sherlock, Peadar Casey and Willy O'Brien.
The OCI, in an unusual move, stepped in to aid the swimmers when it became clear that their programmes leading up to next year's European Championships and the Olympic Games in 2000 would be severely disrupted following a complete shutdown of the IASA. The IASA have agreed to disband and Dr McDaid, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, ceased all funding to the sport pending its restructuring according to the recommendations set out in the Murphy Report into child sex abuse.
The OCI have agreed to fund the swimmers with money out of their own private funds. They claim that none of this comes from the Irish taxpayer. It is a most unusual move by the organisation who have stated that they do not want to see swimmers further victimised following the recent scandals in the sport involving Olympic coaches Derry O'Rourke and George Gibney.
"The meeting went very well," said Nick O'Hare, who has become the spokesman for the group. "It was very amicable and certainly moved in the right direction. We don't yet know what sort of money is involved but we submitted the programmes which we want to follow, which is the first time, actually, anyone has sat down with us and asked us what we wanted to do. "Lee Kelleher was away but her father sent up documentation, Niamh (Cawley) couldn't make it and Adrian (O'Connor) represented the two other swimmers from New Ross. Dermot Sherlock went through the qualification process and told us that the FINA `A' standard is the acceptable level. Those qualifying times were published by FINA way back in February and we hadn't even seen them, although we knew approximately what they would be."
The OCI did not outline a timeframe for the funding but, according to O'Hare, they appear to be treating the matter with urgency, and say their main concern is to help the progression of athletes who are capable of competing in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Dublin-based O'Hare hopes to move to Germany in November to take up a position with top sprint coach Dirk Lange. Lange trains both German star Sandra Volker and British champion Mark Foster. None of the Irish swimmers received any money when the Sports Council recently announced its annual allocation to 170 athletes totalling £925,000.
