In and Out of the Pool Of Leadership

In And Out The Pool Of Leadership

Andrew Priestley

It’s 2004, and it’s poolside for the 400m freestyle final heats at the Australian Championships selection qualifier for 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games. 

Without a doubt the air is electric. Lining up is champion swimmer, Ian Thorpe - like Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps hydraulically proportioned to dominate the pool. Appropriately nicknamed Thorpedo, Thorpe is already a multi-gold medalist, swimming superstar and national hero. 

And he has already qualified for the 100m and 200m.

The swimmers assemble and climb the starters blocks. For whatever reason, the unthinkable happens. He overbalances and falls off the starters block resulting in an instant disqualification from seasoned poolside official, John Keppie.

This is an upset of epic proportions.

The decision, of course, is appealed by Thorpe’s coach. Reported, it is claimed that ‘Thorpe was kept waiting’ and ‘a noise caused Thorpe to make the error’. The appeal is dismissed by Keppie, ending Thorpe’s chance to defend the 400m freestyle Olympic title.

The reaction Australia-wide is instant. Thorpe is Australia’s Gold medal hopeful - a surety - and now those hopes are dashed. There must be a way to get him back in the race.

What ensues is a media frenzy sparking widespread national debate. The Prime Minister of the day, John Howard, calls it a tragedy. Major sporting figures weigh into the debate. They call for the selection policy to be relaxed. 

The second placed swimmer, 23 year-old Craig Stevens qualifies to defend the 400m and almost immediately there is immense populist pressure to have Stevens, a champion in his own right, step aside and hand his place back to Thorpe.

In the next few days, Stevens announces he will step aside to concentrate on other events he has qualified for. It emerges that he was offered $130,000 to become a commentator for the television broadcaster, the Seven Network at the Olympics - essentially $325 a metre. This generates a massive ethical debate - should Stevens have stepped aside for cash? Stevens denies that he was motivated by the money. 

In any event, Stevens step aside and Thorpe accepts the gesture. Everyone wants … and gets a fairy tale ending. 

But not everyone sees it that way. 

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John Keppie, a highly respected veteran swimming official is criticised severely for dashing Australia’s chances to win gold. 

Keppie says, "It wasn't a tough call. We explain to referees coming up that it doesn't matter who is on the blocks, they are just a person. To me, it was just the athlete in lane four who started before the starting signal. It was the only thing I could do, otherwise I would have lost the respect of my colleagues, I would have lost the respect long term of the coaches, the public and everybody else.

"To me, whether it was a 12-year-old or 14-year-old, the rule would have applied."

These are the rules, they won't be bent for anyone. 

Keppie is right.

Kieren Perkins, himself an Olympic gold medalist swimming legend, describes the affair as grubby and "a very, very sad tale for Australian sport.” 

Perkins is right.

A swimming official weighing into the debate explains it wonderfully.

“Trust me, if you are lining up for an Olympic qualifier, you are no slouch in the pool. Craig Stevens was easily at Olympic standard. Everyone therefore, on the starters blocks has been there hundreds of times before - they know the rules. If you fall off the blocks before the race commences, you get disqualified. Thorpe knew that.

Perkins also reacted strongly to the populist view that ‘we should waive the rules … just this once.’

“It sends the wrong message to every kid that aspires to compete.” 

Perkins is right. He ponders, where does this end?

When asked if the IOC should intervene, Olympic gold medalist Suzie O’Neill says they shouldn’t. She reaffirms the view that rules are rules and that Craig Stevens is a champion in his own right and a medal chance. 

When asked, “Do you think it devalues that event though, when you know, when the spectators know, and the other swimmers know that the best swimmer in this event isn't actually competing?” 

O’Neill is adamant. “As far I'm concerned a gold medal is a gold medal at the Olympics, no matter what sport and who is there, and that's what it's all about.”

But what is it all about? It’s about fairness and rules and reality. And trust.

Perkins was right. Keppie was right. Those are the rules. We don’t cheat. We don’t massage the truth. We do not look the other way. We do not win at any cost. We win fairly. We trust in fairness.

Rightly or wrongly, we look up to our national sporting heroes. We value the leadership of people like Kieren Perkins, Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Chris Hoy because they play a fair game. An honourable game. Win, draw, lose, we trust - rely - on their integrity to stand by the rules. And the outcome.

In sport, we denigrate drug cheats and cheats of any kind. What about ethics?

Be very clear, Ian Thorpe did not cheat. The public just didn’t like the result and wanted to bend the rules, and he got caught up in that. But that's not how it should work. Perkins is right. It does send a bad message to kids, and competitors and makes winning meaningless.

The right thing smells like leadership.

*

Outside the pool, for me, I lost faith in politicians in 1996, when after winning an Australian Federal election John Howard slashed spending to Education and Social Welfare blaming a budget deficit left by a previous government. When it was pointed out that he had promised not to cut spending on these areas as part of his election platform and that he had lied, he claimed that these were "non-core promises”. 

A non-core promise is a commitment to deliver a service, funding item etc that is subsequently ... set aside with a glib excuse.

For me, 2016, was the year that trust in political leadership was broken. The message seems to have become ‘whatever it takes’ married to spin, sleight of hand and smoke and mirrors.

Did Trump conspire with the Russians in the 2016 election? We are told a report clears him of this. But the decision is controversial and it still doesn’t sit well.

In 2016, in the UK, we are told, “We send the EU ￡350m a week, let's fund our NHS instead”. This bus slogan is credited with being influential in Leave winning the vote but has been controversial ever since. But was that the truth?

If I mislead a customer I can be fined, struck off or go to jail and have my reputation in tatters. But it appears, if I am politician, I can commit gross public mischievousness on a scale that is economically crippling and on far reaching proportions - without consequence.

We look to all leaders to be responsible. To lead honestly. Otherwise, we are complicit in ‘whatever it takes’. If so, we should accept that whatever follows, we sanctioned. 

Just how badly do you want to win? And what rules do you relax to make it?

I am fan of lobbying and voting intelligently. Politics is still our best hope. Provided we lobby and vote.

I was business mentored by straight shooters.

They understood the concept of being a grown-up where we accept that life and business deals out success and failure and we should take that in our stride. Where we play by the rules, play fairly and do what is for the greater good.

In 2019, sadly, there are few profiled political leaders we can admire or respect. And now even trust. 

But I am still a fan of business leaders who in my experience, on the balance play by the rules and increasingly, use their influence for the betterment of others. Thankfully, this is an area that continues to inspire me and an arena I wish to leave in better shape.

*

By the way, Thorpe won gold in the 400m freestyle in Athens. Just thought you should know. 

It is reported that Thorpe appeared to shed tears in an uncharacteristic sign of emotion, admitting afterwards that the controversy surrounding the event had taken a toll on him, but denying that any liquid had left his eyes. 

*

Undeniably, Thorpe was and remains a champion. Michael Phelps claims Thorpe was the greatest middle-distance swimmer or all time. Dawn Fraser says Thorpe was the greatest swimmer in the world. Watch any of Thorpe’s races on Youtube and you will see exactly what a true champion looks like in the pool.

And I have the utmost respect.

I do not know Thorpe personally, but my hunch from this distance, I speculate, is that the events of 2004 may have been what seemed to dull his passion for swimming - and winning - which lead to his subsequent retirement in 2006.

As a business coach specialising in leadership, qualified in psychology, focused on achievement I have had the privilege to peak under the bonnet and into the minds of some very high performers. I can assure that at that level, integrity is definitely linked to sustained high performance. I like winners but I detest winners who do whatever it takes to win.

And it comes at a high price, anyway.

At the elite level, whenever you violate your own integrity and rationalise poor performance, you start to make mistakes in judgement, your performance drops and your game will suffer.

And even if everyone thinks you are a winner, and outwardly it looks like that, when you put your head on the pillow at night, you sleep with you. You know what happened.

Even if life goes against you, if you play a straight bat, if you stick to the rules and stay on the right side of the argument, life remains sweet.

There is a lot to be said for playing it straight, integrity and sleeping easy. 

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Thorpe_false_start_controversy
• https://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/why-i-disqualified-ian-thorpe--swimming-official-opens-up-about-thorpedo-flop-20150725-gikeea.html
• https://www.smh.com.au/sport/its-your-race-ian-at-325-a-metre-20040427-gditd9.html
• https://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1076565.htm
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/05/16/350m-brexit-bus-slogan-lie-says-jean-claude-juncker/
• https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=non-core%20promise
• https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check/2016/may/23/does-the-eu-really-cost-the-uk-350m-a-week
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics_–_Men%27s_400_metre_freestyle

About Andrew Priestley

Andrew Priestley is a qualified award winning business leadership coach and was ranked in the Top 100 UK Entrepreneur Mentors 2017. He is the best-selling author of three books: The Money Chimp, Starting and Awareness, as well as the editor of multiple expert author books on leadership and on sales. He is an international speaker and the founder MD of The Coaching Experience.

He started out as the publisher of an entertainment newspaper Big Night Out in direct competition with Rupert Murdoch - Murdoch won! From there he created a marketing agency and was head hunted to several marketing agencies as an accounts manager and later as a turnaround specialist.

He is currently the Chairman of Trustees for Clear Sky Childrens Charity which was recently nominated as charity of the year.

You can find Andrew on LinkedIn or

www.andrewpriestley.com