Swimming: Tough standards bring results - and heartache

New coach Clive Rushton has brought a hard-nosed attitude to New Zealand Swimming. Whether it will find favour with coaches and their swimmers is debatable.

Rushton, with the backing of the country's most successful coach, Jan Cameron, was making no apology to those swimmers who went close to meeting the times needed to book a place at this year's world championships but missed out.

No second chances here. Swim the target time at the national championships or stay home.

Rushton might have had some sympathy for those who went so tantalisingly close, but he was not showing it.

His philosophy is simple: You don't get a second chance at the world championships or the Olympics. Turn up on the day, perform or miss out.

His attitude will, surely, be no different at next year's nationals in Christchurch where tickets to the Athens Olympics will be on offer.

While there is something to be said for such a hard-nosed line, swimmers can look at other sports and feel they have a raw deal in terms of qualifying.

They have but one chance where they can prove their worth. All the early-morning/afternoon toil comes down to that one shot.

Other sports see it differently.

Track and field athletes have long chased qualifying times/distances all over the world. They have their national championships and usually the Australian nationals as well. There are Grands Prix and other meetings where the competition brings out the best.

Unlike swimmers, who know what to expect at an enclosed pool, athletes often find conditions far from conducive to producing top performances.

But swimmers and athletes (and perhaps weightlifters) do have some common ground.

Their qualifying marks are finite. Meet the mark and pack your bag.

Others, such as gymnastics, diving, boxing and a host of other sports, are judged subjectively.

And that is the conundrum again facing our Olympic selectors as they prepare for next year's Games.

Long gone are the days when three wise men would sit down, draw up a list and read out the names.

They now work closely with each of the 20-plus sports in which New Zealand will be represented in Athens and draw up the guidelines.

It goes much deeper than that. In these times of limits, many sports have their numbers dictated by "quota spots", often in conjunction with Australia or other Oceania countries.

It can be a complicated system. The International Olympic Committee has set a limit of 10,500 athletes in Athens, and National Olympic Committees worldwide are having to make tough decisions.

The Olympics are more than 15 months away but by the end of next month every sport will know the criteria its athletes must meet.

The announcement of the selection criteria after next month's New Zealand Olympic Committee board meeting should bring few surprises. After all, the individual sports played a part in drawing it up. But that will not necessarily mean harmony in the lead-up to the Olympics.

Under the quota system, one sportsman or woman (or a group) can earn a spot for New Zealand in Athens but, come next year, that place may be taken by an athlete the selectors regard as a better bet.

There will, this time next year, be the usual joy but, one feels, there will still be heartache.

Back to swimming. Their system does work.

Ask Alison Fitch. She just missed the target time for last year's Commonwealth Games and stayed home while her mates headed to Manchester.

Determined that would not happen again she got stuck in, lifted the bar and wasted no time in booking her ticket to Barcelona for this year's world championships. Already she is talking Olympics. It is hard to see her not being there.

So maybe Rushton has got it right.