Maddie Groves says she was surprised by Kieren Perkins’ comments in the wake of her explosive allegations about the toxic culture within Australian swimming.
Groves announced she would not be competing at the Olympic trials in June due to “misogynistic perverts in sport” in a social media post explaining her decision.
Her claims triggered other complaints including fat-shaming of female swimmers with at least six other elite swimmers reportedly preparing to outline their concerns.
In her first interview since making the claims, Groves said she was upset by comments from Swimming Australia president Perkins who responded to Groves’ post by denying cultural issues in the sport during Australia’s dominant campaign in the pool in Tokyo.
The Olympic legend said “I defy anyone to suggest there’s a cultural issue in swimming at the moment” as the Aussies ripped their competitors in the pool.
“It was incredibly disappointing that the head of the entire organisation could deny there could be improvement,” Groves told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s surprising because everyone else can see it. I have had a significant amount of people contact me and find out how they can get involved and speak to the independent panel, which is now taking submissions.
“There are a lot of amazing people who work in swimming and work really hard. But realistically, no, I don’t have a lot of faith that things will change because I have spent the past few years trying to advocate for change. Seeing how unsuccessful that has been hasn’t really given me a lot of hope.
“I should probably be more optimistic. I just hope that just because the Tokyo Olympics team was the most successful team ever that it doesn’t give people an excuse not to want to continue improving the culture.
“I’m more interested in how many people from a squad end up being severely injured, have low self-esteem, struggle with mental health, have eating disorders versus how many people are winning Olympic medals. How many of those people are you willing to sacrifice for the sake of winning medals at the Olympics every four years?”
Groves, who won silver in the 200m butterfly at the Rio Olympics, said she has received a lot of support since boycotting the Tokyo trials.
She has met with Swimming Australia and the governing body announced it will set up an all-female panel to investigate the treatment of athletes.
“I was calling a spade a spade. It’s something I have been wading through and dealing with for a few years, so it wasn’t an off-the-cuff remark,” Groves added.
“I had a lot of time to work out how I feel about things. One of the things I didn’t want to do was to go on and represent people I don’t feel comfortable working with.”
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