Olympic Swimming Row Rumbles On

The row over the switch of the 2008 Olympic swimming finals in Beijing to the
morning session to accommodate the demands of US television refuses to go away
after British competitors openly criticised the IOC’s decision.

Speaking on behalf of his British teammates, swimmer Darren Mew stated
that the move to pacify US broadcaster NBC’s demands has left many athletes
dissatisfied.

‘A lot of swimmers feel it has taken away from the Olympic
ideal of putting athletes first,’ said Mew.

‘Now it seems to be all about
NBC and it is a shame. Ultimately, the Olympics is a commercial business now.
For many years we’ve been used to swimming finals in the evening – that’s when
world records are broken and best performances are swum.

‘Even with that
information they still decided to move it to morning finals but we’re all in the
same boat and we have to get on with it. But with the Olympics less than two
years away it’s fairly short notice. They should have decided straight after
Athens – at least we would have had longer to prepare then.’

The switch to
the morning session is not only inconvenient for the athletes but also takes the
swimming TV coverage for European broadcasters out of prime-time and into the
early hours of the morning.