Article by Riley Overland courtesy of swim swam.
Add Gina Rinehart to the list of those who have apparently lost faith in Swimming Australia.
The 69-year-old Australian billionaire has reportedly stopped contributing money to Swimming Australia for the past two years — instead supporting 92 elite swimmers with direct payments through the Hancock Prospecting Swimmer Support Scheme — leaving the federation with a $7 million shortfall in sponsorship revenue. This week, details about her frustrations with Swimming Australia finally came to light.
According to a report by News Corp, Rinehart cut ties with Swimming Australia because athletes were receiving their payments late and she didn’t feel like she had a voice in the organization. The 69-year-old also asked the Swimming Australia board to add a delegate from her company, Hancock Prospecting, but the representative was not given voting power and repeatedly asked to leave due to conflicts.
Rinehart’s new Patron’s Medal Achievement Incentive Fund offers bonuses directly to athletes for World Championship and Olympic performances: $20,000 Australian dollars for a gold medal, $15,000 for silver, $10,000 for bronze, and $30,000 for a world record.
“I still can’t believe Swimming Australia lost the greatest benefactor I’ve seen since Santa Claus,” Swimming Queensland chief executive Kevin Hasemann told News Corp. “Mrs. Rinehart’s generosity towards our sport is astonishing. She’s been sponsoring swimming for the past 35 years, tipping in over $40 million since 2012 through the Hancock Swimmer Support Scheme, the lifeblood of performance swimming in Australia.
A further $40 million has been committed to the scheme leading up to the 2032 home Olympics.”
Rinehart got involved in financing Olympic sports after the Aussies won just one gold medal in the pool at the London 2012 Olympics, reportedly investing $60 million Australian dollars ($38.9 million USD) of her multi-billion dollar mining fortune over the past decade.
The donations are considered to be the biggest ever from an individual to an Olympic team anywhere in the world.
“Australia’s Tokyo triumph and ascension to world number one at the recent World Championships simply couldn’t have happened without Mrs. Rinehart,” Hasemann added. “And, but for her, the prospect of Australian swimmers replicating their amazing Tokyo record in Brisbane in 2032 would be torpedoed, and Australia’s prospects of a high medal count would be a pipe dream.”
The timing of Thursday’s news involving Rinehart and Swimming Australia could not be worse for the federation. Constitutional reform will be discussed at a special general meeting on Friday after World Aquatics demanded in August that Swimming Australia address multiple compliance issues, including the need to be “more representative and inclusive of its athletes.” The organization has featured four different chief executives since 2017.
If the revised constitution does not pass a vote on Friday, Swimming Australia’s membership within World Aquatics could be revoked and athletes would have to compete as neutrals at international competitions.
Rinehart attended the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, appearing alongside Kyle Chalmers‘ mom in an Instagram post by the reigning 100 free world champion. The Aussies amassed an impressive 13 gold medals, 7 silvers and 5 bronze for a total of 25 medals at the 2023 World Championships, rendering the competition just the second time since the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne that Australia beat the U.S. in the medal table at an elite international meet.
Shayna Jack, who won three world titles on Aussie relays in Fukuoka along with an individual silver in the 50 free, praised Rinehart as a “generous and supportive person.” The 24-year-old Jack noted that “more athletes would retire well and truly before their 30s if it wasn’t for Ms. Rinehart’s generosity.”
