Swimming: SNZ's freshwater start

Swimming New Zealand's new chairman Ross Butler was thumbing some old annual reports recently.

The sport has been through the wringer of late, with disagreement among regions on the best way forward, calls for mass resignations from the SNZ board, and general unhappiness at the organisation and its handling of business.

So Butler was intrigued, as he rifled through 20-year-old reports, to discover many of the same grumbles - governance, management and delivery from the sport's bosses - were alive and kicking then, just as they were a few weeks ago when disquiet in the wake of the critical Ineson Report was made public.

Now, with a review into SNZ about to start, and a working group of both swimming and independent business people involved, Butler hopes the sport will turn a significant corner.

The Nelson-based professional director and businessman has been on the board just over four years. He appreciates that at times a degree of tension and forthright opinion, be it in government, companies or sports organisations, is no bad thing.

"That's happened, and I'm grateful it has because I think it's given all of us a hurry up and a chance now - having seen the way forward through using this review process - to step back," he said.

"Let the review take its place in a quiet, calm environment while we get on with supporting other things in swimming."

The annual meeting was due in late September, but deferred after clear signs that blood would be on the floor of the Wellington venue.

Butler is credited with getting the warring parties among the 16 regions - eight of whom wanted big change, including signing a letter to SNZ board members wanting them gone - to sit down and take stock.

He won't discuss what was said behind closed doors "but we all realised we couldn't go on like this".

Last weekend, the meeting was finally held and the review process, with working and overseeing steering committees, confirmed. The first draft of the review is due in April.

All sections within the sport will be interviewed; the idea is that no part of the sport should feel left out.

"I really do see this review as a fantastic opportunity to put swimming in its rightful place," Butler said.

"All the elements will get the chance to paint the way they see swimming going ahead in the future. Everything is on the table."

Meanwhile the sport carries on. Butler maintains nothing is being undertaken which will undermine planning for next year's London Olympic Games.

He pointed to the successes achieved across the board at the world university games in August in Shenzhen, China - a record 12 medals compared with eight over all previous games since 1983 - and four finals and six semifinals at the world champs in Shanghai a month earlier, second only to their 2005 effort and including nine national records.

"Our swimmers have been written off in the last six months and not [given] a show in hell in London," Butler said. "But we're travelling beautifully. I believe the team going there will be crawling over broken glass to get themselves through the heats and into the finals."

Back to the review. Butler's ideal outcome is that the process is "embraced" by the swimming community, "that they feel wanted, appreciated and listened to, and that the work of this working group gives them a sense of ownership and [once the recommendations are made] a feeling that yes, that's the way they wanted it".