Aussie’s Chef de Mission Reportedly Took Issue With Swimming Culture

Even before the situation involving Australian swimmers Josh Palmer and Emma McKeon partying in Rio against Australian Olympic Committee protocol, Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller reportedly took issue with the entire swimming squad’s cliquish culture.

Although no specifics have officially been detailed at this time, the Gold Coast Bulletin is reporting that the team ‘had not lived up to what Chiller wanted with aspects of her one team ideology.’ For instance, athletes reportedly replace the ‘one team’ cheer with ‘our team’, the phrase by which the Dolphins have swum by in the years leading up to the Games.

According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, Chiller stated, “On a whole there has been fantastic buy in to ‘one team’. I’m reticent to discuss it here and now because I haven’t discussed it with swimming.”

“I would like to have the opportunity of doing that first. I would be disappointed if any team or any sport had moved away from our one team concept. I think the majority of sports did buy into the one team and I think everybody did at certain points in time.”

“I acknowledge some sports have their own identity and it’s difficult to not lose that but incorporate their identity into a broader identity at Games time.

“But I won’t make any further comment until I’ve had the opportunity to speak with swimming about that,” Chiller stated.