Swimming Australia Board stands by President Chris Fydler over allegations made by World Aquatics

Swimming Australia Chief Executive Rob Woodhouse has today confirmed that the body's President Chris Fydler will deny and defend recent allegations made by World Aquatics Integrity Unit (AQIU).

In a statement issued to this publication, Swimming Australia advised the following.

The Swimming Australia Board recently sought clarity on World Aquatics’ board nomination process in response to correspondence issued by Oceania Aquatics.

This led the Swimming Australia Board to not nominate a candidate for the World Aquatics Board. It is this same process which is under review, and which is the subject of AQIU’s allegations.

Woodhouse said the Swimming Australia Board is in full support of Fydler, who has requested for the matter to be referred to the World Aquatics Adjudicatory Body.

Woodhouse said Swimming Australia had worked closely and extensively with World Aquatics in recent months to find a way forward with constitutional change underpinned by good governance.

Woodhouse stated "given the pending hearing, we cannot comment any further but can confirm that Swimming Australia fully supports Chris."

Olympic gold medallist and a qualified lawyer Fydler, who was awarded life membership of Swimming Australia in 2020, was also a board member of Swimming Australia from 2006-2010, and a member of the FINA’s (World Aquatics) Disciplinary Panel from 2009-2017 and Ethics Panel from 2018-2023.

In addition to serving as President of Swimming NSW, he was Deputy Chef de Mission for the Australian Olympic team at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and served on the Board of the NSW Institute of Sport from 2017-2023.

Woodhouse added “Chris’s leadership these past six months has been exceptional and he has been front and centre of our green and gold strategic review.

“We now turn our attention to the World Swimming Championships, the World Para Swimming Championships, World Junior Championships and maintaining our momentum as the most successful Olympic and Paralympic sport.”

Swimming Australia added that no further comment will be made.