It was last year when my wife took the NCCP (National Coaching Certification Progam) Level 1 Triathlon course. On the course, in addition to a pro triathlete and a handful of athletes wanting to learn more about how to coach triathletes was none other than the Swim Ontario Executive Director. Having a son who competes regularly in triathlons, why wouldn’t the ED of Swim Ontario want to learn about coaching so as to help out his son? Its an interesting contradication though how the sport of triathlon permits parents to coach their children and allows them to compete “unattached” from a triathlon club, whereas the sport of swimming stands firmly against such an arrangement. Its interesting how this same ED of Swim Ontario fought against any and all requests of removing the policy of mandatory attachment to a club in the sport of swimming yet himself wants to take advantage of this opportunity in the sport of triathlon, at the same time… Swim Ontario and its ED have never had an issue with holding a double standard so one can not be truly surprised.
But unattached status of athletes isn’t the focus of this post, the focus is a series of statements that the Swim Ontario Executive Director made while attending the triathlon coaching course.
As in all NCCP coaching courses, the topic of liability comes up in some manner. The level 1 triathlon coaching course is no different, and when the topic arose… this is when the Swim Ontario Executive Director just couldn’t keep his mouth closed. My wife returned home from the course sharing how the Swim Ontario ED went on and on and on about how many legal issues Swim Ontario faces, and faces continuously, and then went on and on and on about the legal costs associated with dealing with all the legal issues.
Kinda makes one wonder…
How much money does Swim Ontario actually pour into the sport of swimming, and how much of Government of Ontario funding, which is in fact taxpayer dollars ends up at legal firms covering all the fees Swim Ontario racks up in defending its policies & procedures?
As an aside… I actually tried to find out, but Swim Ontario is as transparent as a brick wall and its refusal to release any documents forced me to seek Swim Ontario’s financial statements via a Freedom of Information Act request. That was of little help as Swim Ontario released only as much as absolutely required to comply with the FIPPA request, and what was released was non itemized ensuring no one could piece together any aspect of its operations.
Which brings me back to the prior post… on “experts” and how “experts” because of their belief that they are all knowing develop inane exclusionary, discriminatory, and self serving policies and procedures with the result being: exactly what the Swim Ontario Executive Director admitted to while on the triathlon course, namely that resources – tremendous amounts of time and money – are spent by Swim Ontario defending its own policies and procedures.
Understandably, no policy or procedure will make all the people happy all the time, BUT… there is a common denominator if Swim Ontario is having to constantly deal with legal issue after legal issue.