Swimming Australia CEO Rob Woodhouse is hoping to provide more financial security to his country’s top swimmers and coaches to combat the lure of outside organizations, namely the Enhanced Games.
It’s no secret that the inaugural Enhanced Games, held in May, offered massive prize money purses to its athletes, regardless of their result. And though the event was largely considered a flop in the aftermath, current swimmers couldn’t help but notice the large paydays their former competitors received.
One of the most vocal swimmers among the issue of fair pay of late has been Cameron McEvoy, who spoke out after IOC President Kirsty Coventry was quoted as saying she didn’t believe in paying athletes prize money.
McEvoy was also frustrated with the Enhanced Games.
“When the only major opportunity of income is the Enhanced Games, a swimming competition that promotes drug use, that is an issue for our sport,” McEvoy said, according to the Australian Financial Review. “It’s not the path I want to take.”
After using his own out-of-the-box, cutting edge training approach to have a career renaissance and become Olympic champion and the world record holder in the men’s 50 free, McEvoy has launched a subscription-based platform where he offers training tips, helping supplement his income, but Woodhouse believes the national governing body should do more for the athletes.
“The likes of Cam McEvoy and Kyle Chalmers have been in the Australian team for a long time. They’ve been at the top of their game, but they haven’t made a lot from the sport, besides a few individual endorsements,” said Woodhouse, who was appointed as Swimming Australia CEO in February 2024.
Woodhouse is hoping to have contracts for top athletes and coaches in place by 2029, according to the Australian Financial Review, helping support the swimmers in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
He also wants the national governing body to be more engaged with the sport at all levels.
“We need to commercialize our sport better. And to do that, we need to be engaging those community levels, getting more kids in and retaining them,” he said, according to the Australian Financial Review.
“For over 100 years, Swimming Australia has had no relationship with the swimming industry. We’ve got a million kids a year doing learn-to-swim lessons around the country, but the standards of the curriculum have been dropping significantly. Not in all swim schools by any stretch, but across the industry, we’re seeing kids come out who are not that proficient in freestyle, let alone the other strokes.”
Woodhouse is seeking new sponsorships to help pay for the elite-level contracts in addition to increasing community outreach.
Australian swimmers have received financial backing over the last decade-plus from Australian mogul Gina Rinehart, who is offering $20K/$15K/$10K bonuses for swimmers who win gold, silver or bronze at the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
Woodhouse said while the backing from Rinehart and her Hancock Prospecting company has been “fantastic,” there’s need for additional sponsorships and the landscape is getting more difficult than ever with football (soccer) and tennis getting plenty of attention.
He noted that performing well at the Commonwealth Games will go a long way to helping that cause, and that the team is looking “really strong” outside of Kaylee McKeown‘s recent withdrawal due to glandular fever.
“It’s funny. We’ve been really strong in the women’s ranks for seven or eight years now, and before that there was a period when the men were winning the Olympic gold. So it sort of ebbs and flows between the men and the women,” Woodhouse said, according to the Australian Financial Review.
“It would just be wonderful if they were all peaking at the same time.”
What happens til then? Guess the wankers will just keep the money for themselves.