James Magnussen was devastated when the 100m men’s freestyle Olympic gold medal was snatched away by his American rival Nathan Adrian, but some of his Australian teammates were so thrilled they stood up and cheered.
That such a thing could happen at an Olympic Games and to an Australian swimming team is almost incomprehensible, but a special investigation published in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly reveals the shocking extent of Magnussen’s unpopularity.
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“I have heard this from a half a dozen swimmers since they came back from London,” says a swimming insider who spoke to The Weekly on condition of anonymity. “When Magnusson didn’t win, members of the team cheered and were happy.”
The Weekly spent three weeks delving into the issues behind the team’s performance in London, with its single gold the worst performance in the Olympic pool in two decades.
Most inside the sport would talk only on the condition their names weren’t used, fearing they’d be ostracised for voicing their concerns about a sport they clearly love.
Poke behind the mammoth advertising billboards, the bewildering array of marketing contracts and the bonhomie of welcome home parades, and what you find is a sport at war with itself.
“Not too many years ago, there was an aura around the Australian swim team,” says one observer. “When the team walked onto the pool deck, other countries would stop and stare and stand in awe. Now, there is no sense of team. The culture that was once the glue that held everyone together has long gone and it seems there are rules for some and rules for others.”
Much criticism focuses on James Magnussen not attending an important team briefing in the days before the competition began.
“There may be a very good reason for why he didn’t attend the team meeting,” says one Games veteran who spoke to many present swimmers. “But the truth is that James didn’t attend some of meetings that Olympic officials thought he should.
“It created a perception among other members of the team that he was being treated differently to everyone else, that if it’s good enough for him, then why isn’t it good enough for me?
“That sort of thing creates disunity no matter who it is and that can make a huge difference to morale and team psychology. In a culture that relies on the team as the central unit, the lone wolf idea doesn’t work. It just doesn’t. And James Magnussen was conspicuous by his absence.”
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And his swagger didn’t help. “Magnussen’s brash overconfidence, it rubbed a lot of the swimmers the wrong way,” says another former official.
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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