JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 17. TWO respected former swimming stars have been appointed to join Advocate Norman Arendse as members of the team appointed to investigate complaints brought to the attention of Swimming South Africa following the Beijing Olympics.
They are former national team swimmer Kirsten van Heerden and ex-KwaZulu Natal swim and water polo athlete Rowan Meth. The appointment of the investigating team followed a meeting on September 6 in Germiston between representatives of Swimming SA, including President Jace Naidoo, and members of the team that went to Beijing.
At the meeting, all parties agreed to work together towards finding ways and means to make the sport an obvious choice of sports career for promising swimmers. During the meeting, Naidoo announced that Arendse had been appointed to speak to the athletes and team management on a one-on-one basis to establish the cause of unhappiness. He further assured the athletes that all submissions would be treated with the utmost confidentiality.
"Besides being a former SA team swimmer, Kirsten is a practicing sports psychologist in Durban, while Rowan has a legal and labor relations background. Swimming SA is confident that this highly credible team will be able to identify areas of concern so that the sport can be taken to the next level," said Naidoo. "Initially, we planned on wrapping up the process by month-end, but it may run well into October, if that is what it takes for a thorough investigation to be completed."