Members of the Australian men's relay team at today's press conference.
Members of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team will face a Swimming Australia integrity panel inquiry following admissions of misbehaviour at a team bonding session at Manchester before the London Olympics.
In statement read out by Australian Swimmers Association chief executive Daniel Kowalski on behalf of the six swimmers, Eamon Sullivan, Tommaso D'Orsogna, James Magnussen, James Roberts, Matt Targett and Cameron McEvoy, the squad admitted to taking the sedative Stilnox after a training session.
The pills were prescribed to Sullivan and Targett and the scripts were filled before the team left Australia and before the Australian Olympic Committee announced that team members were banned from using the drug about three weeks before the Games.
Cameron McEvoy, James Magnussen and Eamon Sullivan at the press conference. Photo: Edwina Pickles
The team admitted that they used the drug in knowing it was banned by the AOC.
"We all acknowledge that at the time Stilnox was consumed, it had been recently prohibited by the AOC,’’ Kowalksi read.
‘‘We own up to it ... and are deeply sorry for it.’’
The six-man relay team, consisting of James Magnussen, Eamon Sullivan, James Roberts, Matt Targett, Cameron McEvoy and Tommaso D'Orsogna. Photo: Getty Images
The team admitted some of them played pranks on other team members such as knocking on their doors but denied entering any rooms of teammates, and said they were all in bed by 10.30pm.
The swim team’s head coach Leigh Nugent was told of the pranks the following morning.
The swimmers now face sanctions from the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) which could include bans and fines.
The AOC banned athletes using Stilnox and other prescription sedatives.
The six freestyle relay squad members admitted to all taking one Stilnox tablet during their bonding session. Favoured to win the gold medal in London, a team of Magnussen, Targett, Sullivan and Roberts swam the final and finished fourth.
The swimmers believed the bonding session was ‘‘harmless fun’’.
World 100m champion Magnussen and Sullivan insisted taking Stilnox had no effect ‘‘at all’’ on their swim performances in London.
Magnussen said the prescription drug was taken ‘‘to bond with these guys’’.
‘‘In hindsight it was a ridiculous choice and ridiculous method ... but I don’t feel it affected my performance,’’ Magnussen said.
The revelations came a day after Swimming Australia (SA) created its integrity panel in the wake of two damning reviews released publicly on Tuesday.One review, into culture and leadership, found a ‘‘toxic’’ culture cruelled Australia’s swim team at last year’s London Olympics.
Australian swimmers won just one gold, six silver and three bronze medals at the London Games, the lowest tally in the pool in two decades.
The nation also failed to produce an individual gold medallist for the first time since the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
The review cited incidents of ‘‘getting drunk, misuse of prescription drugs, breaching curfews, deceit, bullying’’ which were not addressed by team hierarchy.
A separate review, into swimming’s governance and high performance program, identified shortcomings including a lack of clear national vision and poor accountability, transparency and communication.
It also found Swimming Australia’s board was unable to deal with issues and made 35 recommendations to improve governance and the high performance program.
Roberts later said that despite Sullivan’s comment that they all took one Stilnox pill, he had never taken the drug and did not do so then.
‘‘I didn’t take Stilnox that night,’’ Roberts said.
- smh.com.au and AAP
