Sailing ColumnThe Olympic Council of Ireland has initiated an investigation into complaints against team management in Athens by one athlete.
This week, with just days to go before the end of the Irish Sailing Association's annus horribilis, the disabled athletes of Ireland's Paralympic squad are also set to join the hunt for fundamental changes to the management of this end of the sport.
The first signs of dissent in one of the largest and apparently strongest Olympic sailing squads ever assembled appeared with a wrangle among the Star class keelboat sailors over the terms of the selection procedure for the single place in that discipline.
Following a complaint by one sailor, the OCI investigated the matter in Spring 2003 and commented negatively on the Irish Sailing Association management. The ISA indicated it would follow up the recommendation that an investigation be held. Nothing has been heard since.
Privately, many observers concluded that the OCI findings were only to be expected given the tempestuous relations between the Olympic representative body and sailing's national authority which had been engendered by a sailing-inspired attempt to depose OCI president Pat Hickey.
After that affair died down, the build-up to the Athens Games began but despite publicly stated hopes of being in the "medal zone" the national squad was unable to equal the result from Sydney 2000 and, despite a number of notable individual results, the squad was criticised for under-performing.
In September, as an extension of the Irish Sports Council's own Athens review, Wharton Consulting was asked to look into the sailing performance. That report was due at the end of October, then extended to the end of November due to "factual inaccuracies" only to have its publication deferred indefinitely.
Three weeks ago, the athletes united to request the ISA to overhaul their High Performance strategy and to make personnel changes.
Leaks from the unpublished Wharton report also suggested criticism of team management although the athletes are also believed to be in the firing line.
However, the athletes point to the fact that they must achieve fixed standards to receive public funding and team nomination while management has no such performance criteria, lacking even contracts of service.
Last week it was a complaint from 49er crewman Fraser Brown which led to this week's OCI investigation, which is expected to report back early in the new year.
This body does not have jurisdiction over the Paralympic athletes but the four sailors concerned have mirrored their able-bodied colleagues in preparing demands for change.
To date, vacancies abound. Apart from last week's resignation of ISA chief executive Paddy Boyd, the Olympic Group chairman Anthony O'Leary resigned having concluded his four-year commitment. He followed Youth Development Manager Bill O'Hara.
Looking ahead to 2005, the ISA can at best hope to be in "fix-it" mode, hopefully avoiding further fall-out from a High Performance programme that appears to be in tatters.
