Swimming Australia boss Rob Woodhouse warns against Olympic protests after China scandal

“In my opinion, it’s a little different to the world championships and other events like that where there have been protests in the past. Protests as we know can lead to discrimination and other issues and can incite violence. It’s something that anyone needs to be very careful about.

“I believe the IOC has their own rules in regard to that. The athletes may or may not adhere to those rules.”

Asked if he would speak to athletes about the possibility of protests, Woodhouse said: “I won’t be saying anything to the swimmers in that regard. We actually haven’t discussed that at our high-performance level.”

Mack Horton famously protested on the medal podium at the 2019 world championships after China’s Sun Yang returned from a positive drug test.

The International Olympic Committee has strict rules that state athletes cannot participate in demonstrations on the field of play, during medal ceremonies, in the athletes village or during the opening and closing ceremonies.

Three years ago in Tokyo, rules were relaxed slightly to allow athletes to “express their views” before the start of competition.

“My first meetings with AOC [Australian Olympic Committee] are actually next week but I don’t imagine it’d be on the agenda but it might be,” Woodhouse said. “I’d be interested to hear their views and we’ll take them on board of course, but I don’t think that they would be doing that [telling athletes not to protest].”

Australia’s swimmers are focused on their training ahead of trials from June 10 to 15 but once on the Olympic team might think more about what happens when they arrive in Paris and race against the Chinese.

Reigning gold medallist Zac Stubblety-Cook lost his 200m breaststroke world record last year to China’s Qin Haiyang, who tested positive to TMZ in 2021 but was cleared to keep competing.

Woodhouse welcomed WADA’s announcement of an independent investigation that will analyse the case after widespread backlash from athletes and anti-doping agencies.

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“It’s fair to say there is definitely disappointment and some anger from athletes, not just here in Australia, but around the world,” Woodhouse said. “We have probably seen athletes from elsewhere in the world be a bit more vocal about it.

“There’s probably a mix of some athletes who are ignoring it because all the athletes have a pretty heavy focus on what’s going to happen next month. They want to be concentrating on that. They don’t want this issue dominating their thoughts or preparation.

“Representing the athletes … [we have done what] we believe is taking the right steps in terms of initially calling for information and asking for WADA and the various authorities to provide that information.

“The bigger, longer-term push for us … is for that call for greater transparency in these sorts of cases. Without that, if issues like this pop up from time to time, naturally athletes are just going to get fed up with it.”

Woodhouse, who is the uncle of Australia’s most decorated Olympian, Emma McKeon, said he was thrilled to take on the role of CEO.

“I’ve had a successful career in business but it’s been revolved around the sport,” Woodhouse said. “I’ve worked with swimmers [as an agent] and in swimming that whole time and also in media … since I retired from swimming myself. It was a pretty natural thing to come back.

“From what I saw and read and heard of some of the issues within the sport here in Australia … I think I can make a significant difference and make a contribution. There’s probably some skeletons and some issues that have happened in the past but for me, it’s all about learning from them.”

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